2 ms·

I think article missed a really large sector which uses coal and produces millions of tons of co2 each year, That is cement industry. Heating clinker to produce

I think article missed a really large sector which uses coal and produces millions of tons of co2 each year, That is cement industry. Heating clinker to produce cement is energy intensive long process, where big investments towards technology for using Hydrogen can be fruitful.

threatripper 6y ago
Why not use electricity or natural gas for heating? Both would be more efficient than using hydrogen as an intermediate step.
- jitendrac 6y ago
  For current circumstances this makes sense, Natural gas is not carbon neutral. For electricity, as the renewable energy generation capacity will increase, Storage of excess will be essentially required. when in near future we develop viable tech to generate hydrogen from electricity with low or no carbon impact at reasonable efficiency,we can save them in underground reserves(Safest way in my view) and use existing piping infrastructure of natural gas for its transportation. we need to do research and wait for appropriate tech to be available.
jillesvangurp 6y ago
Wood is basically emerging as an alternative in this sector lately. There are some wood based building materials coming on the market that are cheap, sustainable, light, safe, strong, etc. Think people building sky scrapers in areas with exposure to earthquakes and tropical storms safe. I'm talking about Tokyo. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/16/plyscraper-city-tokyo-tower-wood-w350 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/16/plyscraper-ci... Hydrogen is not really needed to fix this.
- jitendrac 6y ago
  yup, new innovation is needed in construction. But wood is not gonna replace all cement-concrete use-cases.Cement-concrete has far more usecases from skyscrapers like bridges,Dams to road construction.
kolinko 6y ago
Energy emissions are responsible for just 40-50% of emissions for cement. The rest is due to co2 released from limestone. So even with carbon free heat production cement industry would still generate a lot of co2 :/

threatripper 6y ago

Why not use electricity or natural gas for heating? Both would be more efficient than using hydrogen as an intermediate step.

jitendrac 6y ago
For current circumstances this makes sense, Natural gas is not carbon neutral. For electricity, as the renewable energy generation capacity will increase, Storage of excess will be essentially required. when in near future we develop viable tech to generate hydrogen from electricity with low or no carbon impact at reasonable efficiency,we can save them in underground reserves(Safest way in my view) and use existing piping infrastructure of natural gas for its transportation. we need to do research and wait for appropriate tech to be available.

jillesvangurp 6y ago

Wood is basically emerging as an alternative in this sector lately. There are some wood based building materials coming on the market that are cheap, sustainable, light, safe, strong, etc. Think people building sky scrapers in areas with exposure to earthquakes and tropical storms safe. I'm talking about Tokyo. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/16/plyscraper-city-tokyo-tower-wood-w350 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/16/plyscraper-ci... Hydrogen is not really needed to fix this.

jitendrac 6y ago
yup, new innovation is needed in construction. But wood is not gonna replace all cement-concrete use-cases.Cement-concrete has far more usecases from skyscrapers like bridges,Dams to road construction.

kolinko 6y ago

Energy emissions are responsible for just 40-50% of emissions for cement. The rest is due to co2 released from limestone. So even with carbon free heat production cement industry would still generate a lot of co2 :/