Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
Calling hydrogen fossil fuel free is hilarious.
If it were battery powered it would be cheaper to buy, cheaper to refuel, easier to refuel, actually have the possibility of actually being fossil fuel free and most importantly people might be willing to buy it.
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Batteries are limited by chemistry. There are no chemistries on the horizon or in the super computer selection modeling being done in universities that will allow energy density three times that of current lithium batteries. There are hydrogen chemistries that will allow the storage at room temperature and standard pressure of hydrogen produced by any means you care for that already match that triple factor advantage. Or nearly so.
You don't have to thermally decompose fossil natural gas to get hydrogen. As I outlined in other posts, you can use renewable energy from excess sources. For example. If and when solar panels become so low cost and ubiquitous that they are the replacements for roofing material, sunny locations will charge a short range battery electric car and run a house energy needs easily. If there is excess , what can you do with it? You could put it into another battery in your basement, or you could also run an electrolyzer and store the hydrogen for future use. To be exact, you could store it indefinitely. You could store a large enough amount that it may get you through some long spells of cloudy weather. It also could be ported into your Fuel Cell car for longer trips. The density of hydrogen storage is already an advantage. Low pressure, non-cryogenic storage will make it a game changer. Renewables will now have a place to dump excess energy long term.
Battery tech has reached the point of percentage gains for the effort.
Hydrogen is still moving in leaps and bounds when it comes to possibilities.