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147 points rbanffy | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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_aavaa_ ◴[] No.42727009[source]
Ammonia as a fuel is an absurdly stupid idea. It is trading the lives and safety of crews and passengers for a bit of money.
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ReptileMan ◴[] No.42727230[source]
What is so dangerous about it compared to lets say a gasoline engine converted to use LPG or Methane? There are many of those in Europe where I live.
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_aavaa_ ◴[] No.42727338[source]
You mean aside from being a colorless toxic gas that will kill you in as little as 5 minutes?
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1. jofer ◴[] No.42727382[source]
Yeah, ammonia leaks are much more nasty than methane or hydrogen leaks. Methane, especially in LNG form, is quite safe compared to ammonia. LPG is even more stable than LNG and requires lower pressures. With that said, hydrogen leaks are "fun" because large ones usually self ignite and burn with a hot but mostly invisible flame. But hydrogen itself isn't toxic. Similarly, methane and propane aren't directly toxic.

Basically, an ammonia leak will kill you. By itself. The others are only a problem if they're the right concentrations to ignite. That's a relatively high concentration and a larger leak. Much smaller leaks of ammonia are deadly.

It's still a good solution for some things, but it's a bad solution for consumer vehicles like cars for that reason.