10-17-2009, 11:06 PM
The ONLY advantage of Hydrogen by electrolysis, which critics like Davester completely ignore, is that of transport of the "raw materials".
Electrolysis is inefficient in an energy-in-vs-energy-out basis... horribly so. But you can move water and electicity both with great ease to the point where you need the Hydrogen - and then split it there.
Transportation of HYDROGEN is difficult, bulky, and dangerous.
Transportation of water is EASY.
Electrolysis is dirt simple, and a plant to do it on a large scale and liquify the Hydrogen (and most likely just release the Oxygen to the atmosphere...) is only a modest difficulty.
As I said, Davester is 100% right about it's energy efficiency; a net LOSS.... A substantial one.
But it makes constructing an infrastructure from scratch a great deal easier than the idea of "hydrogen pipelines" or transporting liquid hydrogen all over the country in trucks.
For the time being, there's absolutely no reason to electrolize water to get hydrogen.
There will most likely NEVER be a reason to build a hydrogen powered vehicle, the energy density is just too low, and the storage of cryogenic hydrogen is not trivial, not easy, and not safe.
Unless there is a way to increase the density of Hydrogen, and store it at room temperature, then Fuel Cells are never going to be a viable alternative either.
Electrolysis is inefficient in an energy-in-vs-energy-out basis... horribly so. But you can move water and electicity both with great ease to the point where you need the Hydrogen - and then split it there.
Transportation of HYDROGEN is difficult, bulky, and dangerous.
Transportation of water is EASY.
Electrolysis is dirt simple, and a plant to do it on a large scale and liquify the Hydrogen (and most likely just release the Oxygen to the atmosphere...) is only a modest difficulty.
As I said, Davester is 100% right about it's energy efficiency; a net LOSS.... A substantial one.
But it makes constructing an infrastructure from scratch a great deal easier than the idea of "hydrogen pipelines" or transporting liquid hydrogen all over the country in trucks.
For the time being, there's absolutely no reason to electrolize water to get hydrogen.
There will most likely NEVER be a reason to build a hydrogen powered vehicle, the energy density is just too low, and the storage of cryogenic hydrogen is not trivial, not easy, and not safe.
Unless there is a way to increase the density of Hydrogen, and store it at room temperature, then Fuel Cells are never going to be a viable alternative either.