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Originally Posted by theunchosen
totally agree with the first part.
The second part. . .It's only as dangerous as rupturing your fuel tank. Most likely what would happen is a valve would snap off the tank causing it to accelerate in whatever direction the valve was.
Hydrogen is very energetic and much lighter than air, not like propane, methane or iso-octanyl. The hydrogen once its out of the tank would rapidly expand and no longer be dense enough for combustion. Seriously try getting some to burn more than a few inches from a small outlet.
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Actually a large hydrogen leak can be very dangerous. It will escape from a pressure tank and form a huge combustible cloud in a short amount of time before it has a chance to disperse. Hydrogen has a lower explosive limit of 4% and an upper explosive limit of 75%. This wide range of flammability and its rapid combustion speed can result in quite a powerful explosion.
All the big car companies that are experimenting with hydrogen vehicles use metal hydride hydrogen tanks. The reason is it prevents the hydrogen from being released quickly in case of a storage tank breach. This provides time for it to disperse or burn off slowly.