• Grimy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    42
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    5 months ago

    Fuck hydrogen. Its a fake green product so oil companies can transition as slow as they want while still keeping their strangle hold on our society.

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      It depends a lot on where the hydrogen is sourced from. Hydrogen that is generated from electrolyzers using renewable power is completely green (and funny enough, called Green Hydrogen), and is a good way to store excess energy from solar and wind.

      Oil companies however want to market hydrogen from drilling and refining, which is dirty as hell.

      It’s an important differentiation to make though. Hydrogen is not inherently bad and will have plenty of green applications. We just have to make sure it’s coming from the right places.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 months ago

        and is a good way to store excess energy from solar and wind.

        Is it really that good of a storage method, though? The round-trip efficiency is quite bad when compared to other methods of storage.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          5 months ago

          We’ll need it anyway to produce existing chemical materials sustainably. It may not be the best energy carrier nor most efficient, but it shines in specific applications. Vehicles are a promising example.

          • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            There are some use-cases where hydrogen will be useful, but I don’t think storage is one of them. Nor do I think vehicles are a particularly good use-case either, as compared to just iterating on battery technology.

          • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            It’s hard to assess the validity of those claims as the article doesn’t bring any numbers and the paper itself is paywalled. As the fossil fuel industry is pushing hard towards wedging in hydrogen as a means of keeping themselves alive for a while longer, it’s vital to be able to assess the actual claims, lest they are just planted there by the fossil fuel industry.

        • CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.workOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          “That good of a storage method” in terms of what, arbitrage? We should be producing hydrogen for the practical and environmental benefits of having emissions-free vehicle fuel (that avoids the problems of battery production and disposal), steel, and fertilizer.

          • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            I don’t see any good reason why the merits of hydrogen for vehicle fuel would be any better than production and disposal of batteries. The other cases I agree that hydrogen will have a useful niche.

      • Grimy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 months ago

        Sadly almost all hydrogen currently making its way to market is dirty. I have high hopes for it in the future but it seems like thinly veiled poison at the moment.

        And this article is definitely about the dirty kind or at least feels like it is.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          5 months ago

          There’s companies working on it! We’re just broke

          And yes, this is definitely the dirty kind. It may still be an improvement on using natural gas directly, but there would need to be a fairly comprehensive analysis to tell for sure. One possible advantage though is we could start building up a hydrogen infrastructure that we can then feed green hydrogen into and completely replace the dirty hydrogen.

          Anyway though, you’re right to be skeptical. It’s important though to look into the details to determine if it’s legitimately green energy or if it’s just oil companies greenwashing. We need to shun the latter while we promote the former.

          (There is a grey area, and it’s the same as electric cars – if we’re using electricity from the grid to power cars, and electrolyzers which make hydrogen, is it truly green? I would say this is acceptable for the same reason EVs are acceptable. It’ll become completely emission free once the grid is run on renewables.)

    • CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.workOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      10
      ·
      5 months ago

      I disagree. We need hydrogen for GHG-free fertilizer and steel production and it’s the superior choice for powering vehicles. Regardless, this research is interesting because it could help solve the natural gas problem.