On 24 Feb 2016 at 3:36, Richard Aiken wrote:

> As to the earlier question of purity:
>
> I seem to recall (from a series of threads some time back) that
> simply creating liquid hydrogen from water/methane would involve
> elimination of impurities. That is, if you manage to get any LH at
> all out of the process, it's going to be chemically pure.
>
> Of course, this leads: "Well, if LH is necessarily pure fuel, then
> what is unrefined fuel?"
>
> The answer (at least IMTU) is, "Water." 

On the other hand, hydrogen consists of three isotopes. H1
("protium"), H2 deuterium, and H3 tritium.

A reactor that runs nicely on protium won't like gettinf deuterium or
tritium. They fuse at much lower temperatures and pressures.

So it'd be a bit like getting gasoline mixed into your diesel fuel.

Getting *chemically* pure hydrogen from water, ammonia or even
methane isn't hard. Getting istopically pure protium is amuch more
difficult process.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com