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Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

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61–70 of 207 posts

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#61
> electrical energy is used to break water down into its constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen, via the process of electrolysis

is this actually the process to get hydrogen on industrial scale?

from wiki: As of 2020, the majority of hydrogen (∼95%) is produced from fossil fuels by steam reforming of natural gas, partial oxidation of methane, and coal gasification. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_production

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#62

Yeah Germany, Japan, South Korea, UK, China, Australia, France, India, California and so on seeing it as the future of cars. "It is generally considered more ecological than electric, because of much lesser environmental footprint than required for producing batteries. Another advantage would be bigger driving range and faster refuelling." And the biggest advantage: you're cleaning the air while driving from particle…

It is cleaning air from pollution, but it is also removing lots of oxygen. You don't want to breathe hydrogen car exhaust.

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#63
post #30

In Denmark we could split water through hydrolyse whenever there is over-production from windmills. This over-production is something that we currently pay our neighbours to receive. In addition the heat produced can be used as district heating, making it less of an issue that it is less efficient to produce hydrogen.

Newer wind turbine contracts make the turbine owners turn off their engines.

And it is only very few hours of the year that the prices turn negative anyway. You can't base anything off that. It's just not worth it.

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#64
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electric cars weigh more and accelerate faster. Consequently tires and road sealing is worn more. Hydrogen cars do not weigh more.

I don't see that being generally true. For example, the Toyota Mirai weighs 4300 lbs to the Tesla Model 3 weighing 4000 pounds: https://www.caranddriver.com/toyota/mirai/specs https://www.caranddriver.com/tesla/model-3/specs As far as acceleration, that's just a design parameter, as both are driven by electric motors. I'm surprised the Mirai can't perform better given it's extra weight.

Mirai can't perform better because the fuel cell can't put out enough burst power, it needs a buffer battery as is for acceleration and regenerative braking and the buffer battery isn't big enough either for Tesla like acceleration due to size and weight constraints.

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#65
post #17

Hydrogen will always leak from any container. Clean hydrogen is difficult to make, giving an opportunity to the oil industry to easily make cheap hydrogen from refineries, which is not carbon neutral. I'm not sure there is enough platinum in the world to make all those cars. Mining platinum might cause additional carbon emissions. Hydrogen is very dangerous because it's highly explosive. Gas is safer in that regard.

> Hydrogen will always leak from any container. not anymore > Clean hydrogen is difficult to make, giving an opportunity to the oil industry to easily make cheap hydrogen from refineries, which is not carbon neutral. It's not and everybody is talking about GREEN hydrogen > I'm not sure there is enough platinum in the world to make all those cars. Mining platinum might cause additional carbon emissions. you don't need…

I think generally your comments would be more well received if you provide links backing up your statements. Currently your posts just seem to be going through criticisms and simply stating "No, reverse of above statement".

This doesn't lead to a discussion, or informative comment threads.

You can ask for the same in return from those you're interacting with, but considering you're a brand new account seemingly created to provide a counterpoint; it felt worth calling out (with your declining Karma).

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#66

Hydrogen almost certainly won't go anywhere, in my opinion. * The efficiency compared to battery tech is horrendous. * Hydrogen is effectively a storage technology -- we have to generate it and compress it. Which combined with the above means that charging a hydrogen car will always be more expensive than putting the same amount of usable energy into a battery powered car. * Let's not forget that the cheapest way of…

> cheapest way of generating hydrogen is from fossil fuels Cheapest way of charging EVs is from fossil fuels. > You need a large infrastructure to produce and distribute it But you can reuse gas stations as the delivery mechanism. Versus EVs which require all new infrastructure since the charging time is so much longer. > It's a huge chicken and egg problem No different from EVs right now. > What is more convenient,…

> Cheapest way of charging EVs is from fossil fuels.

Fossil fuel electricity is more expensive than wind and solar. Even the most expensive solar, residential, is cheaper than buying from a dirty grid for the vast majority of customers. And the intermittent nature of solar and wind is a perfect match for charging a fleet of EVs.

In contrast, green hydrogen is nowhere near as cheap as fossil fuel hydrogen from steam methane reformation. The dirty secret that no hydrogen fan talks about is that "blue hydrogen" the bridge to green hydrogen, requires carbon capture technology that does not currently exist at scale. And it requires transporting CO2 back to some sequestration site, doubling the amount of transportation of gasses.

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#67

Hydrogen almost certainly won't go anywhere, in my opinion. * The efficiency compared to battery tech is horrendous. * Hydrogen is effectively a storage technology -- we have to generate it and compress it. Which combined with the above means that charging a hydrogen car will always be more expensive than putting the same amount of usable energy into a battery powered car. * Let's not forget that the cheapest way of…

>The efficiency compared to battery tech is horrendous. nope >Hydrogen is effectively a storage technology -- we have to generate it and compress it. Which combined with the above means that charging a hydrogen car will always be more expensive than putting the same amount of usable energy into a battery powered car. Nope, 350kw charger -> loss >Let's not forget that the cheapest way of generating hydrogen is from fo…

Nope: https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/stories/2019/08/hydroge...

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#68

Hydrogen almost certainly won't go anywhere, in my opinion. * The efficiency compared to battery tech is horrendous. * Hydrogen is effectively a storage technology -- we have to generate it and compress it. Which combined with the above means that charging a hydrogen car will always be more expensive than putting the same amount of usable energy into a battery powered car. * Let's not forget that the cheapest way of…

I completely agree that hydrogen is fundamentally flawed, but from a commercial point of view it makes sense in the EU where the "Green deal" has allocated upwards of 500 billion euros for establishing a hydrogen economy over the next decade. See e.g. https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-separating-hype-from-h...

Love this two part series. Hydrogen has an important role in a decarbonized economy, but it certainly isn't for cars. And it won't be ready ver soon. And hydrogen will likely be dwarfed by batteries as a storage mechanism.

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#69
reality: They dont work.

Honda has been trying to make it happen for 20 years now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_FCX its all a huge failure https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-cars/a36751587/honda-cla...

Whats fascinating is the realization Honda toyed with EVs even longer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_EV_Plus and still managed to fail miserably.

Re: Hydrogen fuel cell cars (2020)

#70
The train has left that station 10 years ago, and it's all electric. No point staying in the trenches like the apocryphal Japanese soldier, fighting for the resurgence of Hydrogen. It's less efficient, more expensive for vehicles and infrastructure and more expensive to fuel, has lower range, it's more dangerous. The range record for a Hydrogen vehicle is less than the range of mass-produced commercial cars available today for purchase.

As an inferior technology, Hydrogen stood a chance if it was able to quickly deploy a network of charging stations, locking in customers with a strong network effect. The opposite is true now, electric charging points are popping up everywhere, because it's so damn easy to do, every shopping mall can accommodate at least a handful using its existing electric cabling. Most everybody has a 3.7KW power outlet at home that delivers significant range for an overnight or over-weekend charge.

Meanwhile, Hydrogen needs a completely new pipeline distribution system, using special metals and seals because it's so agile and leaky. There is no point in investing in such a system, because battery electric has already won the race. And without this network, Hydrogen remains an oddity fuel relegated to specialty applications.

It was a dead-end anyway. You either get Hydrogen form natural gas, which is an environmental killer, or you get it from green energy with a 20-30% whole cycle efficiency. Why not use the energy directly with a 80-90% efficiency, and use that vehicle fleet to regulate the whole electric grid?

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