If you believe in the tooth fairy or vote Green, you probably believe that hydrogen is the magical rainbow gas that will banish global warming, replace wicked hydrocarbons in electricity generation, fuel tomorrow’s trucks, planes, and heavy equipment, and earn unlimited export income. [bold, links added]
There is one big problem – unlike coal, oil, and gas, there are no hidden pools of hydrogen we can tap.
Every bit of hydrogen has to be manufactured from water or hydrocarbons using huge amounts of energy.
The energy content of liquid hydrogen is about 70% of the energy required to produce it.
Burn it in a combined cycle gas turbine (energy efficiency 50%) and see that energy return drop to around 35%. Use it as a vehicle fuel and see energy efficiency fall even further.
The density of liquefied hydrogen is much lower than that of natural gas – thus the transportation costs will be higher.
And because the tiny hydrogen atom finds any small leak, the safety risks are very high – imagine a road accident involving flammable lithium batteries plus explosive hydrogen gas.
Most hydrogen is made directly from coal, oil, or natural gas and the main process produces hydrogen and … more of the dreaded CO2.
But hydrogen is loved by Big Greens and little children because it has been named in a rainbow of pretty colors: grey, brown, black, green, and blue.
Grey hydrogen comes from natural gas, brown from lignite (brown coal), and black hydrogen is made from black coal (no surprises there).
Green hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water using intermittent green energy like solar or wind power.
It requires heaps of fresh water and electricity, neither of which can ever be fully recovered. Every ton of hydrogen uses nine tons of water.
Blue hydrogen is any of the above but the CO2 by-product is stored in carbon cemeteries, making blue hydrogen stupidly expensive.
Viv Forbes, chairman of The Carbon Sense Coalition, has spent his life working in exploration, mining, farming, infrastructure, financial analysis, and political commentary. He has worked for government departments and private companies, and now works as a private contractor and farmer.
I compliment the author for providing a concise & PRECISE assessment of the MADNESS of scaling up hydrogen for widespread application in our domestic energy system. Just another misguided initiative (like wind, solar, industrial scale battery storage & biofuels) that ignores the cruel realities of energy imperatives. That label of “Magical Rainbow Gas” is choice! Keep these REALITY CHECKS coming…
Still trying to find that miricle elxrer for a fake illness of Global Warming/Climate Change they sell us Snake Oil instead a Snake Oil called Globalism
The people who fixate on the (relative) inefficiency of greenH2 just don’t get it.
Nothing else, other than greenH2, can decarbonise sectors of energy use that cannot be readily decarbonised directly by electricity/batteries.
Manufacturing greenH2 using a huge overbuild of dysfunctional wind and solar power plants(WASPPs) is economically and environmentally insane. But advanced small modular reactors (SMRs) combined with electrolyser plants can operate profitably at a greenH2 price of $2/kg.
In combination with high temperature steam electrolysis plants, the profitable price drops to $1.5/kg. Jo Bamford, CEO of Ryze Hydrogen, says greenH2 can compete with diesel at $8/kg, so that’s the heavy transport sector sorted.
The POTUS has targeted $1/kg within 10 years and with new developments being regularly mentioned, this is likely to be on the cards.