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I’m undecided about hydrogen. I don’t see where it is better than just replacing everything with solar and wind, and batteries. Where is any colour hydrogen su

I’m undecided about hydrogen. I don’t see where it is better than just replacing everything with solar and wind, and batteries. Where is any colour hydrogen superior to that?

Retric 5y ago
Hydrogen is used in industrial processes not just fuel. In terms of transportation batteries are to heavy for long distance aircraft and very expensive for long distance cargo ships. It’s not clear that hydrogen is the solution for either of those, but it’s a reasonable option.
thinkcontext 5y ago
We need millions of tons of it to make to make NH3 for fertilizer. It's also likely we'll need it to make steel.
- onethought 5y ago
  Can't you use (stupid amounts of) electricity to make steel?
  - thinkcontext 5y ago
    The chemistry part of making steel requires something to remove oxygen from iron oxide (unrusting it, so to speak). For conventional steel that's carbon, in the process I'm referring to hydrogen fills that role.
ZeroGravitas 5y ago
Anything that can be directly electrified should. Storing power in baggeries when you dont need to is stupid. Storing it as hydrogen is also stupid, unless: You make fertilizer from fossil fuels and it currebtly generates 2% of the worlds greehouse gasses. We need to replace that. You currently use coal to make steel and the replacement process uses hydrogen. You need some kind of fuel for flights and ships and the basic building block of all of current options is hydrogen. You need to store energy for a long time, or transport it a great distance. The bonus is that all these things interact, and you can dip into your fertilizer reserves if you need more electricity. The bad press around hydrogen mostly comes from fossil interests using it as a distraction (don't use battery based vehicles, hydrogen ones will be here any day now and be better, and shorlty after that well magically invent a way of disappearing the carbon from blue hydrogen) but its a fairly basic part of human life and we need to decarbonise its production.

I’m undecided about hydrogen. I don’t see where it is better than just replacing everything with solar and wind, and batteries. Where is any colour hydrogen superior to that?

Retric 5y ago

Hydrogen is used in industrial processes not just fuel. In terms of transportation batteries are to heavy for long distance aircraft and very expensive for long distance cargo ships. It’s not clear that hydrogen is the solution for either of those, but it’s a reasonable option.

thinkcontext 5y ago

We need millions of tons of it to make to make NH3 for fertilizer. It's also likely we'll need it to make steel.

onethought 5y ago
Can't you use (stupid amounts of) electricity to make steel?
- thinkcontext 5y ago
  The chemistry part of making steel requires something to remove oxygen from iron oxide (unrusting it, so to speak). For conventional steel that's carbon, in the process I'm referring to hydrogen fills that role.

ZeroGravitas 5y ago

Anything that can be directly electrified should. Storing power in baggeries when you dont need to is stupid. Storing it as hydrogen is also stupid, unless: You make fertilizer from fossil fuels and it currebtly generates 2% of the worlds greehouse gasses. We need to replace that. You currently use coal to make steel and the replacement process uses hydrogen. You need some kind of fuel for flights and ships and the basic building block of all of current options is hydrogen. You need to store energy for a long time, or transport it a great distance. The bonus is that all these things interact, and you can dip into your fertilizer reserves if you need more electricity. The bad press around hydrogen mostly comes from fossil interests using it as a distraction (don't use battery based vehicles, hydrogen ones will be here any day now and be better, and shorlty after that well magically invent a way of disappearing the carbon from blue hydrogen) but its a fairly basic part of human life and we need to decarbonise its production.