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] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

During peak wind or solar hours when the electricity usage is often lower otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

...and with what devices? Currently, there's 11 GW of Electrolysis capacity available worldwide, with about 400 GW potentially realised by 2030. That's 0.07% now of the total production of 16 TW from fossils, increasing to a whopping 2.5% in 2030. And that does not take into account that energy markets will be competing with industry that uses hydrogen as a reduction agent (steel, for example) to replace fossils. It also does not take into account that hydrogen is not as easy to transport than other fossils.

Hydrogen might be the solution to the energy crisis, but for that we'd have to pick up our game immensely. Which will not happen if everyone thinks hydrogen is already freely and abundantly available.

!Remind me in 20 years

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

I mean, it's a tweet from BP.

The P don't stand for photovoltaics...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

first you'd have to purify water by distilling it and then putting it through an R.O. with a regular water filter as a pre-filter.

Then once you have that completely pure mix of hydrogen and oxygen you'd need to do electrolysis on the water. But that initial purifying process would have to be done very strictly, because if there's even the smallest amount of salt or even chlorine in that water, or any other minerals then you could have a mixture of some very dangerous elements in the air around the water

[–] [email protected] 36 points 5 months ago

You know, when a proton and electron love each other very much...

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago

Hydrogen was made approximately 400,000 after the big bang in a process called recombination, as the universe cooled down enough for stable neutral atoms to exist.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (3 children)

OMFG that thread is full of people missing the point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'll bite. I have no idea what the picture is doing or referencing and the joke answers are confusing because, again, I don't get "the joke".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The attack-🪿 is asking BP how the hydrogen is made because it's an important question.

Hydrogen can be made multiple ways.

  1. Split water (H²O) with electricity. You get ⅔ H and ⅓ O. When you burn the H you'll get water back and ⅔ the energy you put in. In this way it can actually as a poor battery.

  2. Take Methane (CH⁴), the major part of natural gas and split it. You get ⅘ H and ⅕ carbon. So you're releasing the same carbon that you would release if you just burnt the methane, and you'll get less energy too. Then take away the energy it took to split the methane and you're a lot worse off for no saving in carbon.

  3. Other oil and gas based sources, but that follow the theme of methane.

Only the first one is "green", and only if the electricy comes from a green source (like solar or wind). Burning gas to make electricity to make hydrogen is stupid.

Oil and gas companies companies keep pushing hydrogen as green power, but really they want to keep selling oil and gas, and if they need to convert it into hydrogen to do it, that's fine in their eyes. Doesn't matter if they are still pumping carbon out of the ground. Doesn't matter if it's less efficient. It's green washing plain and simple.

Attack 🪿 is asking the question that would make them admit this.

That thread was full of people complaining that nobody was doing anything with hydrogen and it was stupid to power cars from electricity directly. They are all just O&G company shills

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Thank you, I appreciate you took the time to write this out and provide context. I was only aware of the water method but that makes sense.

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

You mean the people literally answering the question? I doubt anybody is missing the point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

v unsurprising that an anticommunist instance has so many people shilling for oil companies imo

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