Alternative to the Battery wows?
On 3/9/2021 11:23 AM, Dan Marotta wrote:
That's terrific!* The energy content in H2 beats anything except nuclear
power, and wouldn't it be great to fly a 72 ton glider around with
unlimited launch and retrieve capability?* But one statement in the
article has me perplexed:
"Current hydrogen extraction is highly energy intensive, so ways to
harvest “green hydrogen” using water electrolysis are being explored."
I believe that it takes more energy to extract the hydrogen from water
than is realized by burning the hydrogen.* I have no idea of the energy
cost to liquefy and distill hydrogen.* Can anybody shed some light on
that?* I can see giant smoke stacks spewing sooty black smoke into the
air due to burning coal to generate the electricity to compress the air
to harvest the hydrogen.* Well...* Maybe not.* Perhaps covering Europe
with wind mills to make the electricity and using sailing ships to
deliver the H2 around the world.
Credit to Dr. Seuss and Rube Goldberg for the inspiration.
Yeah, the wide-eyed talk about hydrogen being "the most common element
in the universe" is pure nonsense. There are no "hydrogen wells" on our
planet. It's an energy carrier, not an energy source. And it's not a
good energy carrier, since it leaks through everything etc.
You can use natural gas or other fossil fuels to produce hydrogen from
other materials. Or solar. But currently it's mostly natural gas. And
yes it uses more energy to "produce" than you get from burning it. Or
even from using it in fuel cell$. About 4x more, all told, relative to
using electric power directly.
But the "hydrogen economy" rah-rah seems to emerge from the shadows for
another round every decade or so. Then it goes back into the shadows to
keep fusion energy company.
If the issue is what to do with surplus solar or wind energy, in the
(few) times and places where it's available, there are many other ideas,
including the production of liquid fuels which are much more practical
than hydrogen. Methanol and ammonia are some I've heard of. Yes they
are toxic if spilled. So is gasoline. At least you know when there's a
leak.
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