I'm looking into building a clean Bunsen-style burner (or rocket engine - I haven't decided yet). I will be using electrolysis to extract hydrogen and oxygen from water, but the apparatus I am thinking about building will render gaseous hydrogen and gaseous oxygen, but in a mixture. Preferably I would store them compressed, and not have spontaneous combustion.
My question is this:
Will gaseous hydrogen and gaseous oxygen react with each other if compressed in the same chamber?
If so, how much pressure is required before it blows up?
Answer
The study Explosion Characteristics of Hydrogen-Air and Hydrogen-Oxygen Mixtures at Elevated Pressures includes data for pressures up to 200 bar.
Data were collected for Hydrogen-Oxygen mixtures at both 20 and 80 degrees C at pressures ranging from 1 to 200 bar. A high voltage spark was still needed to cause explosion.
Storing a compressed mixture of hydrogen and oxygen still seems extremely unsafe to me. I definitely wouldn't do it.
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