Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Because it's personal opinion?
It's mostly the compressed part. A friend lost his motor home when a propane tank went off like a bottle rocket (allegedly). Uncompressed gas is cheap because it's hard to move to the point of use, isn't it. Especially hydrogen.
Of course I wasn't thinking about steam or compressed air. With very high pressure air, at least it isn't ignitable.
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Compressed fuel gasses have better safety records than liquid fuels most specifically gasoline.
Gaseous fuels are easily transported to the point of use via pipeline.
Gaseous fuels can be used in transport by storing in adsorptive media like common carbon or metal hydrides. This just about mitigates most problems such as the aforementioned "hydrogen embrittlement" problem.
As a regional fuel, gaseous fuels make economic sense. Catalytic transformation to liquid fuels makes their energy use more dense and far ranging.
CNG fueling stations are becoming more common. One just opened up a couple miles from my condo. Since our HOA is not going to allow us to install an electric charging station, the idea of an all electric vehicle is out of the question. However, several outfits now perform CNG conversions for cars as well as heavy industrial applications and several manufacturers such as Honda have models outfitted to use CNG straight from the factory. At a cost of about 3 dollars US to refuel and drive all week, it is an economic advantage that is worth looking into.
And don't get me started on diesels. Diesels are two decades behind gasoline engines in emission control technology. There will come a time when both gasoline and diesel engines will be capably clean and will merge into something resembling a hybrid combustion model.