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I actually might argue the opposite direction; anything involving electrolyzers is likely wasteful. It's inherently an inefficient process even a theoretical ma
by qchris 6y ago
I actually might argue the opposite direction; anything involving electrolyzers is likely wasteful. It's inherently an inefficient process even a theoretical maximums, and we can probably put that capacity to better use through other mechanisms with a higher conversion efficiency.
On the other hand, there are a ton of sources of methane that society pretty much will always generate through agriculture or landfills. For example, BMW ran a pilot a few years ago running a large factory's forklifts on hydrogen sourced from biomethane from a local landfill[1]. Cost and technology improvements in areas like steam methane reformers and anaerobic digestion could drive costs down to the point where those facilities can actually gain meaningful adoption, and meaningfully, co-locate hydrogen sources near points of consumption, so you can worry less about the headache of transporting H2 molecules around.
Hydrogen is unlikely to wholesale compete with battery electric at this point, but it absolutely shines in certain niche performance applications. To me, aligning the supply chain to leverage those particular instances seems like the best way to work it into a green(er) energy portfolio.
For what it's worth, while in school, I did a 7-month co-op a few years ago working on next-gen R&D of PEM fuel cell stacks, so I generally consider myself fairly well versed on potentially out-of-date information.
[1] https://www.energy.gov/articles/garbage-power-out-south-carolina-bmw-plant-demonstrates-landfill-gas-hydrogen-fuel https://www.energy.gov/articles/garbage-power-out-south-caro...
- zxwx 6y ago> anything involving electrolyzers is likely wasteful I've seen this stated a few times in this thread, but read elsewhere that electrolysis of water currently has nearly identical efficiency to steam reforming of natural gas, in the 70-80% range, with a theoretical max that is significantly higher than for the steam reforming process. Factor in the huge CO2 expense of extracting hydrogen from fossil fuels and the ever-increasing abundance of cheap green electricity, and electrolysis looks like the right place to focus to me.