5 ms·
Conductive metals have resistance, so they must lose a portion of their energy as heat. A pipeline only has to overcome friction on the inner surface of the pip
by Hypx 6y ago
Conductive metals have resistance, so they must lose a portion of their energy as heat. A pipeline only has to overcome friction on the inner surface of the pipe, which is easily reduced by having a wider pipe. So this isn't a surprise.
Hydrogen pipes will have the same benefits, albeit you will want a wider pipe due to the lower density.
- JulianMorrison 6y agoHydrogen has problems of leaking out, and damaging materials, in both cases because very small molecules can easily insert themselves where they don't belong.
- Hypx 6y agoThis is close to becoming a FUD argument. Hydrogen does not leak out of properly designed pipes and containers in appreciable quantities. Embrittlement doesn't not happen either except for specific cases or where an incorrect alloy was used. These are mostly solved problems in modern times.
- TheAdamAndChe 6y agoIf you have hundreds or thousands of miles of pipes installed by third-party contractors, the existence of improperly designed pipes, incorrect alloys, and corner cutting becomes virtually inevitable.
- jonstewart 6y agoI don’t know about such things, so have a well-intentioned question: are these problems solvable at scale at reasonable cost? One hears about pipeline leaks frequently, and hundred+ mile long pipelines seem like a hard thing to construct with rigorous precision.
- Hypx 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_pipeline_transport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_pipeline_transport Hydrogen pipelines exist and for the most part work as intended. There are straightforward ways of avoiding the main problems. AFAIK, these are cost effective solutions.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- gambiting 6y agoLast time I was at university we stored hydrogen in pure lead bottles(70kg bottle for just 1L of hydrogen!) and it would leak all of it naturally over about 4-6 weeks. And the bottles had to be replaced every now and then because hydrogen makes them brittle while permeating through them. Has that changed? Do we now have some exotic materials that can hold it better than pure lead?
- Hypx 6y agoCarbon fiber? That's what cars like the Toyota Mirai are storing it in.
- hinkley 6y agoThe NASA planned replacement for the space shuttle had a bunch of setbacks, but what killed it was the carbon fiber cryo tanks delaminating. They couldn’t solve the problem fast enough and it all got shitcanned. Has that been solved now? The Mirai can have a low pressure tank, fed from a much larger, higher pressure tank at the fuel station. That tank and the delivery systems for it are separate problems that also have to be solved at scale. “At scale” is the problem that public policy has to wrestle with. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you can do it for everybody.
- Hypx 6y agoThat was in the 1990s. Not to mention they were trying to build a non-cylindrical tank which made things significantly harder.
- hinkley 6y agoEvery couple of years everyone forgets what a pain in the butt it is to control pure hydrogen. There should be a write up somewhere that people can link to instead of having to explain it all again to a new crowd. You could even link all of the research and research opportunities into ways of mitigating those problems, which would just make the point all the better. When you solve those n problems we can talk about whether you can solve them at a price point that makes commercial hydrogen viable. Until then we can use it for space ships, which by design spend their entire life outdoors and far away from any structure or worker that isn’t there to directly or indirectly support the fuel delivery system, and is nowhere near civilians.
- rswskg 6y agoHowever super conducting pipelines don't. Crack cheap superconducting materials and you've got 20% more electricity back.