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"Green" hydrogen is anything but. Electrolysis is a fundamentally inefficient technique. Scale it all you want, but you will hit diminishing returns faster than

"Green" hydrogen is anything but. Electrolysis is a fundamentally inefficient technique. Scale it all you want, but you will hit diminishing returns faster than with water desalination. Natural hydrogen is the way to go, and I hope hydrogen wells will become as ubiquitous as gas wells in 50 years' time.

narrator 3y ago
According to some reports, there are enormous amounts of "gold hydrogen," that is hydrogen in underground deposits, that's just waiting to be extracted: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134760-500-the-gold-hydrogen-rush-does-earth-contain-near-limitless-clean-fuel/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134760-500-the-gold... ( https://archive.is/4g6dw https://archive.is/4g6dw ) How this enormous non-polluting energy source went unnoticed for decades is mystifying to me. That Toyota and other big auto manufacturers are investing in hydrogen fuel cell and even hydrogen combustion engines means that many people who know what they're doing are betting on this future. The math doesn't really work that well for a "green hydrogen" future, but it may work for a "gold hydrogen" future.
acdha 3y ago
> Electrolysis is a fundamentally inefficient technique Yes, but if we’re seeing huge overproduction times on renewables that might not be a showstopper. Hydrogen is a poor choice for powering things like cars compared to the alternatives but if you have industrial processes which need a flame on the order of 2,000°C it could make sense to have peak capacity wind/solar splitting hydrogen & oxygen for those.
- frodo8sam 3y ago
  To add to that, there are already a number of energy intensive processes that already use hydrogen. Manufacturing fertilizers for example. Currently the hydrogen for these Processes is produced from natural gass but it's a matter of time before production using green energy becomes cheaper.

narrator 3y ago

According to some reports, there are enormous amounts of "gold hydrogen," that is hydrogen in underground deposits, that's just waiting to be extracted: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134760-500-the-gold-hydrogen-rush-does-earth-contain-near-limitless-clean-fuel/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134760-500-the-gold... ( https://archive.is/4g6dw https://archive.is/4g6dw ) How this enormous non-polluting energy source went unnoticed for decades is mystifying to me. That Toyota and other big auto manufacturers are investing in hydrogen fuel cell and even hydrogen combustion engines means that many people who know what they're doing are betting on this future. The math doesn't really work that well for a "green hydrogen" future, but it may work for a "gold hydrogen" future.

acdha 3y ago

> Electrolysis is a fundamentally inefficient technique Yes, but if we’re seeing huge overproduction times on renewables that might not be a showstopper. Hydrogen is a poor choice for powering things like cars compared to the alternatives but if you have industrial processes which need a flame on the order of 2,000°C it could make sense to have peak capacity wind/solar splitting hydrogen & oxygen for those.

frodo8sam 3y ago
To add to that, there are already a number of energy intensive processes that already use hydrogen. Manufacturing fertilizers for example. Currently the hydrogen for these Processes is produced from natural gass but it's a matter of time before production using green energy becomes cheaper.