this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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How is the hydrogen made? (slrpnk.net)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
98 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/8569504

How is the hydrogen made?

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 7 months ago (5 children)

That is true of all colours of hydrogen other than green (and possibly natural stores of 'fossil' hydrogen if they can be extracted without leakage).

Green hydrogen is better thought of as a battery than a fuel. It's a good way to store the excess from renewables and may be the only way to solve problems like air travel.

How hydrogen is transforming these tiny Scottish islands

That's not to say it's perfect. Hydrogen in the atmosphere slows down the decomposition of methane so leaks must be kept well below 5% or the climate benefits are lost. We don't have a good way to measure leaks. It's also quite inefficient because a lot of energy is needed to compress it for portable uses.

And, of course, the biggest problem is that Big Carbon will never stop pushing for dirtier hydrogens to be included in the mix, if green hydrogen paves the way.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago

Storing hydrogen is also really hard. It needs to be kept extremely cold, and when it isn't, it tends to pass right through most storage units.

But as a local battery, it can be very useful. Or for applications in large machinery where batteries aren't a useful option yet.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If the leaks of hydrogen should be kept under 5%, we don't have a good track record of keeping gas leaks under control anyway...

https://youtu.be/K2oL4SFwkkw?si=Kn-uO64U4X5B_szD

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Yes. I'm not watching a video but it is a serious problem, especially as hydrogen degrades metals and finds its way out anyway. The private sector cannot be trusted to self-regulate nor the government to meaningfully regulate.

Trying very hard not to succumb to nihilism here ...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Or, in other words, the hydrogen economy is prone to bubbles and explosions here and there.

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

Well then we won't be chasing this technology until we can find a way to blame the consumer when it wrecks the environment...

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

And better yet, if the excess heat can be used. Last Friday i heard a sales rep from a (green) hydrogen company describe their solution as a heating solution that produce hydrogen at an energy storage conference. Seems fair to me😊

[–] [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] 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] 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] 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.

[–] [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.