I constantly see the armchair BEV (battery electric vehicle) ‘experts’ badmouth hydrogen FCEVs. The hydrogen is 3X less efficient than BEVs, they claim. But the ICEVs (internal combustion engine vehicles) they’re now driving are less efficient than the hydrogen FCEVs! So why are these hypocrites complaining?
Hydrogen has been *safely* generated, stored and transported in huge amounts for over 100 years. It’s generated by the fossil fuels industry from methane (natural gas) for use in making ammonia for making fertilizer.
Every day, every time you take a bite, remember that the food you’re eating was grown using fertilizer made from hydrogen. Without hydrogen to make huge quantities of fertilizer, a large part of the world population would starve to death.
Almost all of the gray hydrogen now made comes from methane, and most of the CO2 that’s left over from making gray hydrogen is released into the atmosphere where it adds to the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. This CO2 must be stopped from being released into the atmosphere. Some of it is used for industrial processes and some is pumped into the ground. But the CO2 must be stopped by replacing the gray hydrogen with green hydrogen, made by splitting water with electricity. This green hydrogen must be made in huge amounts to replace the gray hydrogen, and end the release of CO2 into the atmosphere.
This is a huge task – there must be huge amounts of renewable electricity generated by solar and wind that will be used solely for generating hydrogen. The renewable electricity is not always available – no solar electricity at night – so it makes sense to use excess electricity generated during the daytime to generate green hydrogen, and store it for later use to generate electricity at night with hydrogen fuel cells.
There will need to be from 3 to 6 times the renewable generating capacity in order to have enough electricity during the “dark calm” periods. This excess generating capacity must not be wasted, so during the day, much of the excess will be used for generating hydrogen, which will be stored deep underground. The green hydrogen will be used for keeping the grid powered as its higher priority. Lower priority will be using the hydrogen for making ammonia for fertilizer. The ammonia can be stored and transported and split into hydrogen for running fuel cells to make electricity.
See Tony Seba’s RethinkX YouTube channel for more information on this.
My reply to a Debbie Downer: Andrew Roddy
There are safety problems with every flammable gas or liquid.
Don’t you get it? There are huge amounts of hydrogen **safely** generated, stored and transported to make ammonia for fertilizer and other industrial purposes. You’re an alarmist paranoid conspiracy theorist looking for an excuse to badmouth something that’s already being used in industry and in vehicles for transportation. Don’t you realize how foolish you look?
Every day, every time you take a bite, remember that the food you’re eating was grown using fertilizer made from hydrogen. Without hydrogen to make huge quantities of fertilizer, a large part of the world population would starve to death.
So what are you going to do? Go complain about how unsafe hydrogen is to those who handle it safely every day, all around the world. They’ll laugh you out of the room! They’ll call you names: You’re a Chicken Little screaming “The sky is falling!”