this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/8569504

How is the hydrogen made?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I really don’t get why hydrogen remains popular. Hydrogen is significantly less efficient than lithium batteries in storing electricity. There are currently dozens of technologies on the way for improving batteries beyond what’s possible with lithium. So what’s the market potential for green hydrogen again?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Industry uses A LOT of Hydrogen and that would increase dramatically if we stopped using fossil fuels as chemical feedstocks. eg. plastics, pharmaceuticals, dyes etc.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Batteries are too heavy for many applications (including, arguably, cars).

That doesn't make hydrogen the only solution but it is at least a currently available solution. I posted a link about why the Orkneys (population 23k) are producing hydrogen and switching much of their transport to it: they have so much wind the UK (population 70m) national grid can't take all the power they generate from it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It wins by a huge margin on the energy to weight ratio. In scenarios where weight doesn't matter it's dumb, but there is potential in places like air travel where it does make sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I had to scroll way too far to find this - surely the main pro/con if hydrogen.

Storage was an issue in the past. Is it better now?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Hydrogen is useful in a lot of industrial processes. It also maybe win the race for green aviation fuel, but this one is not likely. There is plenty of market for green hydrogen.

There is also absolutely no reason to hype about any of it. Everybody hyping it on the media is trying to make global warming worse.