Also, I believe the cathode was small and could not have held enough
hydrogen to generate ~39,700 J (Table 1) even if it was all released
in an instant, but I could be wrong about that.
If the gas was released over a several seconds or a minute and the
recombiner was working there would be no explosion. The cell would
just get hot. To overwhelm the recombiner it would have to be
released in a small fraction of a second. I do not know how long, but
it seems exceedingly unlikely to me that any hydride could degas that quickly.
- Jed
