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>Hydrogen production is the family of industrial methods for generating hydrogen gas. As of 2020, the majority of hydrogen (∼95%) is produced from fossil fuels
by ratsmack 4y ago
>Hydrogen production is the family of industrial methods for generating hydrogen gas. As of 2020, the majority of hydrogen (∼95%) is produced from fossil fuels by steam reforming of natural gas and other light hydrocarbons, partial oxidation of heavier hydrocarbons, and coal gasification.
Unless there is a something I'm missing, it seems that large scale hydrogen production isn't very 'green'.
- Schroedingersat 4y agoWe're rapidly approaching a time where creating electrolysed hydrogen is cheap compared to mining fossil fuels (let alone cracking it and losing a bunch of heat). Storage may still be a deal breaker for some applications, but if a handful of the many emerging electrolyser technologies commercialise you'll be looking at green hydrogen from the cheap 10am-2pm solar energy for <$1/kg pretty soon. 50c is an optimistic but somewhat realistic estimate by the 2030s Being able to mix and match that with fossil fuels on existing infrastructure will cut emissions from those activities by >80% during the warmer months (or year round in the tropics)
- jokoon 4y agoMaybe it would be if nuclear plants would be dedicated to electrolysis. But since electrolysis is inefficient, it would require a lot of nuclear energy.
- jmpman 4y agoIn vehicles, high pressure tanks are required to store hydrogen. However, if you’re looking to store hydrogen cheaply, and volume is not a consideration, what’s the cheapest method? Trying to understand if large solar farms could economically load shift using hydrogen storage tanks
- TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y agoYou can produce hydrogen at home using blue algaea, but something tells me politicians aren't interested in voluntary individual solutions.
- eru 4y agoThis is rather inefficient in terms of labour.
- TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y agoSunshine, water, a pinch of nutrients, and time. In return you get hydrogen and blue algaea are edible to boot! Economies of scale are helpful; every house participating, with windows lined with the little things, would increase efficiency.
- jokoon 4y agoit would require a lot of piping and other tools to compress that hydrogen. a nuclear plant scales better. although the system you talk about might already exist and I'm curious to see a prototype.
- TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y agoOregon State University on how algae produces hydrogen https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Or_F6qC0sK4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Or_F6qC0sK4 Cody's Lab has a cheap algae production setup https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=64cEmjtwRgw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=64cEmjtwRgw
- eru 4y agoIt's even more efficient to just grow plants to eat. However we still don't feed everyone from small household gardens.
- TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y agoIn my setup I will use the weird tasting algaea to feed fish, which feed bacteria, which feed plants, and in turn I will get a balanced nutrient rich diet from all stages.
- 4y ago
- frankus 4y agoIf you’re making H2 from methane you’re obviously better off just burning the methane. Methane also has the advantage that it more or less will never compression ignite, so it can be mixed with the incoming air and then be ignited with a small amount of diesel (“pilot ignited”) or using a spark plug.
- brutusborn 4y agoDistributing hydrocarbons means the emissions are also distributed and thus difficult to capture. Converting to hydrogen at the source allows more efficient carbon capture, which means the only distributed emissions are water.
- Qwertious 4y agoNot currently, but the notion is that we could combine renewables with water electrolysis to mass-produce hydrogen cleanly in the future. The problem is, all the people against serious climate action are also against ensuring all new hydrogen production be green hydrogen production. Their argument goes something along the lines of "the cheaper the hydrogen is, the more likely it is to be adopted, so we'll serve the climate better by funding grey/blue hydrogen until green hydrogen drops in price enough for mass adoption." Which I might halfway believe if they weren't already doing everything they can to stall climate action. These are the people who turfed Turnbull for having too strict a climate policy.
- BerislavLopac 4y agoAnother problem with hydrogen-fuelled engines is that they still use combustion; so even if their fuel is non-fossil based, the engines themselves still produce extra heat and CO2.
- _hypx 4y agoA hydrogen fueled engine would not produce CO₂.
- BerislavLopac 4y agoYou are right, I stand corrected. But it produces nytrogen oxides, so it's not considered zero emission.
- _hypx 4y agoYou can remove NOx via catalytic converters.