Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin
It might be possible to define "fuel" adequately but you'd need to keep it superscience. There's too much real science that can be applied to problems with hydrogen.
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Probably, though I suppose there is always superscience applicable to hydrogen. Maybe the superscience refining process makes it into "metastable liquid hydrogen" that doesn't have to be kept at super-cryonic temperatures, or includes additives that do something ridiculous to the flow characteristics, either of which could reduce the stresses on the fuel delivery system enough to make it less likely to malfunction at a critical moment. The odds of unrefined fuel doing something bad are sort of high for that, and of course the alternate approach would be a more ruggedized fuel delivery system, but needs of drama and all.
Edit: come to think of it, useful additives that you *can't* make from water or gas giant atmosphere might be a reasonable approach to what's different about refined fuel even in a realistic case. Maybe the jump process works better for some reason when the hydrogen has 6842 (+/-1) parts per billion uranium hexafluoride mixed in. It rules out [unlimited] fuel refining on shipboard, but you could still carry enough of the additive inside the fuel processor to mix a few batches before you needed to visit a civilized port to refill it.