Defkalion's commercial reactor (described in their data sheet) has a large hydrogen store. According to most accounts of the Ni-H reaction, the H2 consumed in the reaction is minute. Their commercial reactor is listed as having a 2 liter bottle at 200 bar. Where is all of this gas going to exhaust? Defkalion mentions that the housing is charged with argon to dilute any discharged hydrogen. However, hydrogen is flammable in concentrations of as little as 4%, so before the gas is vented in atmosphere, it must be diluted by more than 25x. Does this reactor also have a bottle of argon for such dilution? To discharge over time the whole H2 bottle, they would need 2L x 200bar x 25 = 10000 liters of argon.
Some have speculated that deuterium is being formed (transmuted) in the Ni-H reaction and it has also been noted that a small percentage of deuterium is poison to the reaction. If deuterium is being formed, then it will be necessary to periodically discharge the gas and recharge to prevent the reaction from being poisoned (probably not permanently poisoned). Defkalion appears to have enough H2 to do this discharge/recharge operation many times over a 6 month recharge cycle (and their large H2 bottle may be evidence that they have found this to be the case), but it is not clear where the argon will come from for diluting that much discharged hydrogen. Any thoughts? Bob Higgins
