I would be interested to learn the differences between the requirements of hydrogen for a combustion engine vs. a fuel cell.
My concern isn't the tank so much as the valve/fuel line being the weak link in a high-speed accident.
Even after the other obstacles have been overcome, it will take time for the gov't, insurance companies, and the public to be convinced they aren't riding a high-speed hydrogen bomb. (myself included- see "Louisiana forklift explosion")
I can see this for low-speed, industrial applications and I hope you are right and someone can overcome the issues the others haven't solved.
Unfortunate loss of life ^. Hopefully they can isolate the cause, but with an explosion of that scale, it may be difficult. Myself, starting into hydrogen, I'd prefer it inside an IC engine, than a fuel-cell.
An expression I heard (old Nordic attribution IIRC) years ago resonated with me then, but even more so as I got older. "
You can get used to anything, even a Hanging".
A Tesla catches fire, and burns for hours - National News. Gasoline fires hardly rate any coverage, unless a whole refinery goes up - and then, you mostly hear about what the expected short-term spike in gasoline prices will be.....
Lighter-than-air: I like that characteristic of hydrogen and natgas, from a safety standpoint, esp. outdoors in open areas.
What I
don't like about propane - heavier-than-air. A much bigger safety risk IMO, than the above 2. A propane depot near where I work had an outdoor fire recently - fortunately only the small (retail/industrial) tanks went up, and not their big bulk ones. Still, $1MM in damage, but amazingly no loss of life or even significant injuries that I heard of.
You're not supposed to store propane indoors...... but how many warehouse forklifts on propane get parked outside all the time ? Back to that
Used to a Hanging thing again......
We all drive around modern gasoline vehicles with electric motors driving fuel pumps in the tank, and nobody thinks twice (even the few that know).....
Once a specific risk gets mitigated down to a low enough level in production, it hardly rates as background noise in the general population....... it wasn't all that long ago that lithium batteries in cell phones and laptops were going up in flames, and for that matter, in the cargo hold of an aircraft...... now people pay six-figures to get trendy cars packed full of them......
We Do,
Live in Interesting Times......
Rgds, D.