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To: Wonder Warthog

"That isn't true, it would require an upgrade to the pipe."

""Wrong. The only upgrade necessary would be to increase the size of the pumps.""

So, hydrogen embrittlement to low grade steel pipes is not a problem? The ability of hydrogen to seap through smaller pinholes not a problem? The need to pump at higher pressures not a problem?

Gee, I'm glad all the problems have been solved. Curious no one has gotten rich from following your advice if it is so easy. It's your big opportunity.


88 posted on 01/23/2005 1:30:13 PM PST by FastCoyote
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To: FastCoyote
"So, hydrogen embrittlement to low grade steel pipes is not a problem? The ability of hydrogen to seap through smaller pinholes not a problem? The need to pump at higher pressures not a problem?"

Ah, yes--the old "hydrogen embrittlement" argument. Here's a clue---hydrogen embrittlement of mild steel is a significant problem AT ELEVATED TEMPERATURES. At ambient temperatures (as in pipelines buried in the ground) the rate of the embrittlement reaction is so slow that it would take hundreds of years for a problem to develop. There is a mild steel pipeline in the Ruhr Valley that has been in use continuously to transfer hydrogen gas from one process plant to another FOR SEVENTY YEARS.

Sure, hydrogen can leak from pinholes---so what?? We know how to avoid the problem, and have for years--see that Ruhr Valley pipeline as an example.

And my earlier response answered the "need to pump at higher pressures" point. Actually, what is needed is not higher pressures, but either more powerful pumps or pumps at more closely-space intervals along the pipeline. Again--a problem that is easily solved.

90 posted on 01/23/2005 1:39:57 PM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel)
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