Why Toyota Was Right About Hydrogen, Even If The Industry Let It Down
Since the dawn of the automobile, gasoline has been the most popular fuel type by far. The process of obtaining gasoline for fuel use is an involved process that many folks claim hurts the environment. After all, it needs to be drilled out of the ground, sent somewhere via a gigantic pipeline or massive barge, refined in a lengthy and expensive process, and then shipped back out to wherever it's destined in its finished state.
Whether or not you agree with the environmental impact of gasoline and diesel, one true fact of fossil fuels is that, someday, we'll simply run out. What do we do then if we haven't transitioned to something else? That's where hydrogen comes into play. It's the most abundant element in the universe, and when burned for fuel, the only tailpipe emission is water vapor. Why hasn't the entire world been scrambling to perfect the use of hydrogen power if all it emits is literal water? Well, Toyota has tried, but despite its massive influence, hydrogen combustion simply hasn't caught on.
Hydrogen as a fuel source seems like an attempt to perpetuate the existing model of centralized refinement, distribution, and purchasing. There are definite hurdles to scaling the electric grid if we perpetuate the number of vehicles but it is possible. If you take into account advances in electric motor and battery capacity and chemistry design and combine all that with green energy options, you have a system which probably scares big energy.
You can make your own hydrogen.
You can make your own hydrogen gas, at home without too much cost. Cooling and compressing it to a density where it would be viable for fueling cars is an order of magnitude more expensive.
Something similar was said about home solar power and storage. Technological progress with make this cost effective.
Solar power off my roof splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen and then more power to compress and cool the hydrogen just so I can pump the hydrogen through a fuel cell to produce electricity to drive electric motors probably has energy losses at each step reducing efficiency. Doing this at scale and adding tanker trucks consuming hydrogen to deliver hydrogen to fueling stations exacerbates the problem further. It seems so much simpler to shove the energy from my roof into a battery and drive away.
There is no reason why it can't be cost effective. We aren't going to run out of sunlight, and all the necessary equipment can last decades or more.
Yep. Been there done that. As a kid. Containment was an issue. Luckily the volume produced was small enough that the resulting explosion only left emotional scars.
I think the play there, from a business perspective, was that hydrogen wouldn't have required as much new infrastructure. Gas stations and fuel delivery networks could be retrofit, and the consumer mindset of pull up and fill a tank doesn't have to change.
That's a generous interpretation though and obviously it didn't work out
"Whether or not you agree with the environmental impact of gasoline and diesel" ? ... really???
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but definitely not on earth.
This reads like a cross between 2023-era ChatGPT and a mediocre high school student. Who talks like this?
The simple reason is that energy companies want money, and lots of it. If you could run your car (or anything else for that matter) on water, they wouldn't make as much money because water is cheap.
Hydrogen is just fossil fuel++ and might actually be worse than just burning methane or no change at all since the emissions can be hidden. Producing hydrogen from water is a great deal more expensive that stripping the hydrogen from fossil fuels. This still emits the carbon just not at the tail pipe.
Using electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen literally only produces hydrogen and oxygen; the two elements that make water. It's also 80% cheaper than extracting it from fossil fuels or biomass (peat). 🤨
If that's true... Then why is almost all hydrogen still being extracted from fossil fuels?
See my first comment.
I know fuel cells could be powered by alcohol as well as ammonia and natural gas. I mean they are still electric cars but are more like a hybrid with the fuel cells making electricity.