On Sat, 9 Mar 2019 09:48:56 -0600, dpb wrote:

On 3/9/2019 9:38 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 9 Mar 2019 08:47:19 -0600, dpb wrote:

On 3/8/2019 10:03 PM, -MIKE- wrote:
...

Electric power plants use pure, distilled, H2O to cool their generators.
*If that water conducted electricity, it would short out the generators.

At least, that's what my electrical engineer buddy who works for the 3rd
largest power supplier in the US tells me.

While air, water and oil all have been (and still are in some cases)
used for cooling, modern large power generators use H gas for generator
cooling since its comparable low density, high specific heat and thermal
conductivity allows a significant improvement in efficiency and
commensurate reduction in size/expense.

Hydrogen sounds really dangerous around a generator (unless it's used
as the fuel also). He is used as a coolant and, like water, won't go
boom. He is as non-reactive as you can get.

Sounds that way, doesn't it?

But is so.

He is inflammable, true, but as a gas has lousy heat transfer properties
in comparison and so is comparatively poor for the purpose. LIQUID He
is used for superconducting applications, but that's not this
application at all.

I think you meant "not-flammable". "Inflammable" doesn't mean what
you think it does. ;-)

No, not cryogenic He. He gas has great heat transfer properties, at
least for a gas. It has a very high mobility and is more massive than
H, so will transfer more per mole. We used it to fill electronics
modules for exactly that reason (and it was non-reactive).

And, "no, I'm not making this up!" -- spent 30+ years, first in
commercial nuclear generation and then transitioned over to fossil...

https://www.power-eng.com/articles/print/volume-113/issue-6/features/hydrogen-cools-well-but-safety-is-crucial.html