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The point of hydrogen is not mainly energy storage but hydrogen is the only viable way to clean up two of the most carbon intensive industrial processes: steel
by yayachiken 5y ago
The point of hydrogen is not mainly energy storage but hydrogen is the only viable way to clean up two of the most carbon intensive industrial processes: steel smelting and ammonia (fertilizer) synthesis. Smelting steel requires coal to reduce the oxygen from raw iron to carbon dioxide. The coal can be replaced by hydrogen, which will then react to water vapor. Synthesizing ammonia needs elemental hydrogen which is as of now extracted from methane (natural gas) using steam reformation. This leads to CO2 as waste product whereas electrolysis crates hydrogen and oxygen directly/cleanly from water.
You need huge amounts of "base load" hydrogen generation capacities for these industries alone. Flexible generation, i.e. produce more to soak up excess renewable energy which you can then export or turn back into electricity (at a huge loss) later, is just the cherry on top.
The initial funding will absolutely come from the steel and chemical industry (and also government subsidies to get the transformation started).
- panick21_ 5y agoHydrogen is not at all required for steel melting. Look at Boston Metal. In fact I would argue its the worst solution of the two by a big margin. For ammonia this will eventually be required.
- exfascist 5y agoSmelting isn't just melting, it chemically reduces Iron oxide and needs a reducing agent (hydrogen, CO etc.)
- imtringued 5y agoAluminum is reduced through electrolysis. I think he means that method can be used for iron which means you don't have to use electrolysis on hydrogen.
- marcosdumay 5y agoYou can purify iron by electrolysis too. You don't need hydrogen for that. But you still must get a way to put carbon in it. This is usually done by mixing the steel with CO, and the easiest way to get from renewables to CO is by reacting CO2 and H2.
- chess_buster 5y agoThe Salzgitter AG certainly thinks hydrogen is the way to go.
- marcosdumay 5y agoWell, hydrogen is a way to go. I don't think anybody has enough information to know what is the way to go. But well, I'm an outsider with very little information.