Hydrex

I can't believe they raised the price of Hydrex again, how am I supposed to go to work now?

— Anonymous, 382

Hydrex is an advanced liquid organic hydrogen carrier widely used as fuel for a multitude of vehicles and machinery. Originally created by Helios Energies in the 290s, the manufacturing process has since been made publicly available to allow more companies to supply the ever growing demand. Some 80 years after its invention, Hydrex has become a vital resource for humanity, as hydrogen has become an omnipresent source of energy for many vehicles, from motorbikes to aircrafts. Hydrex can be found in every human settlement with proper logistics and, combined with modern fuel cells, provides an extremely efficient source of electricity.

Hydrex is mainly produced in orbital refineries and exists in two states: hydrogenated and de-hydrogenated. Once Hydrex no longer contains hydrogen, it can be recycled at several disposal sites to be made into newly hydrogenated Hydrex. This makes it one of the most recycled material in Elysium, even when compared to calfen. The major Hydrex production sites are located in the systems of Auriga and Medea, supplying the two largest superpowers with more than 20 million barrels a day. Naturally, many more production sites can be found scattered throughout Elysium, as the manufacturing process remains relatively simple.

Usage

The fundamental purpose of Hydrex is to store and release hydrogen gas in a stable and controlled environment. When combined with modern ultra-high density fuel cells, this principle translates into using Hydrex as fuel. Hydrex is typically stored within special canisters that readily extract the hydrogen from the liquid compound. These canisters are standardized and interchangeable from one machine to the other, but some vehicles instead rely on internal tanks. This is often the case with heavy and / or large vehicles such as aircrafts, construction vehicles or military vehicles, whose power requirement are too high to efficiently use regular canisters.

Science Placeholder by Jonathan M.K. Dornell

Type:
Material
Discovered:
294
Major Users:
Vestan Federation
Enodian Ascendancy
Elysian Security Organization
Unity Concord
Non-Aligned Nomad Fleets
Criminal Underworld

The standard Hydrex canister contains 12L of Hydrex and weighs approximately 15kg, making is rather heavy and bulky to be handled manually. Most service stations instead use mechanichal arms to lift and insert these canisters in place. Most civilian vehicles carry a single canister, giving them an autonomy of roughly 600km. Some can use two or more canisters, but these are rare occurences as internal tanks become more viable for such applications. This is typically the case for military vehicles, whose mass and power requirement would quickly drain even 3 or 4 canisters.

History

Hydrex can created by Helios Energies in 294 as a solution to the low density hydrogen carriers previously available. At the time, most vehicles instead relied on batteries only, making the hydrogen industry a low priority for investors. The creation of Hydrex revitalized the interes in fuel cell technology, and the invention of ultra-dense fuel cells in 328 sealed the fate of electric vehicles. The industries rapidly changed from an electric society to a hydrogen society, utilizing Hydrex as a medium to store and provide hydrogen in a number of applications. This rapid growth caused some supply issues during the transitional period towards a hydrogen-powered society. This production issue slowly improved until the Asterian Insurrection, where Asteria was again under shortages of Hydrex for several months.

Nowadays, Hydrex is produced locally in all of the colonized systems, with Auriga and Medea representing more than 90% of the world's production. This massive production lowered the cost of Hydrex, making its use even more predominant with lower class citizens of Elysium. Unfortunately, Hydrex shipments are often targetted by pirates and outlaws to be sold on the black market, making supply lines somewhat risky, especially in the CeryxSystem.