Comment Re:Flight safety(security and breathing)? (Score 1) 249
It's not true that a methanol fuel cell will only emit CO2, it will emit H2O as well. Methanol's chemical formula is CH3OH; those hydrogens have to go somewhere when the fuel cell catalytically "burns" the methanol. The reaction ought to be:
2 CH3OH + 3 O2 --> 4 H2O + 2 CO2
For 120 milliliters of methanol, i.e. one "tank," this will give you 110 milliliters of water, I imagine as vapor. I don't know, but I would guess this is substantially less than a human's daily (respiratory) water output...I'll bet if I breathed on a cold piece of glass for a day I'd collect more than 110 milliliters of water (although maybe not before I passed out from hyperventilating...).
2 CH3OH + 3 O2 --> 4 H2O + 2 CO2
For 120 milliliters of methanol, i.e. one "tank," this will give you 110 milliliters of water, I imagine as vapor. I don't know, but I would guess this is substantially less than a human's daily (respiratory) water output...I'll bet if I breathed on a cold piece of glass for a day I'd collect more than 110 milliliters of water (although maybe not before I passed out from hyperventilating...).
