Submitted by Wagamaga t3_z0fimy in technology
Comments
HodorFirstOfHisHodor t1_ix5hyv3 wrote
Hydrogen can be grey, blue or green. The article says the electricity comes from renewable sources which makes it green hydrogen.
[deleted] t1_ix5i0w2 wrote
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carlosvega t1_ix5qxaz wrote
Hydrogen is not a source of energy. Is an energy carrier. The main sources of energy are nuclear and solar. All others derive from these two. Exceptions may be tidal and geothermal but they constitute a very small fraction. Green hydrogen could be useful for industry but I have yet to see a big scale plan for it.
The_Countess t1_ix64cm9 wrote
or red, which is a 'new' flavour they are developing in japan where its generated by heat from a nuclear reactor.
(A reactor that can't melt down because among other things, it doesn't use water for cooling, and can withstand temps up to 1800 degrees C. They have a test reactor up already, and they let it melt down deliberately, and nothing happened. The reaction stopped on its own.)
So far that's one of the few climate neutral large scale hydrogen generation techniques that has looked at all feasible to me. For everything else the efficiency just isn't there. For example if you use renewable electricity to create hydrogen to fuel a car (even a fuelcell powered one (60% efficiency), not ICE (25% at best), a battery car would go 2.5 to 3 times as far on the same amount of renewable energy.
efficiencies like that would always relegate it specific parts of the market were batteries are just too heavy (aviation) or near instant refueling is a requirement.
69tank69 t1_ix68ki2 wrote
Right now a huge chunk of it comes from natural gas
Exotria t1_ix7r07l wrote
There's some interesting work being done with green hydrogen in ammonia production, which is used to make fertilizer. With recent innovations, ammonia production plants can be scaled at smaller sizes, so you've got the use case of an island with lots of solar being able to produce its own fertilizer without fossil fuel shipments.
HertogJan1 t1_ix83tzo wrote
wouldn't it just be blue like regular nuclear power?
The_Countess t1_ix8c7ut wrote
They went with red, because its the heat that separates the oxygen from the hydrogen.
netz_pirat t1_ix8cubp wrote
Green hydrogen only makes sense if you scale your generation for winter needs, and therefore have excess in summer that you can't use otherwise.
And it only makes sense for stuff that you can't power otherwise. (ie efuel kerosene for aviation)
einmaldrin_alleshin t1_ix8glyp wrote
Well with renewables, there's a lot of fluctuation all the time. If solar and wind are able to power the entire country on a calm and cloudy day, there's going to a lot of excess during windy sunny days. Green hydrogen generation would ideally utilize these peaks.
carlosvega t1_ixaaymz wrote
Indeed. But natural gas is just another carrier, the source of it is solar anyway. That’s why usually we speak about sources of electricity, types of electricity production or electricity mix.
69tank69 t1_ixaj5n3 wrote
Most SMR plants I have seen burned fossil fuels do you have any source that says otherwise
carlosvega t1_ixao8nz wrote
I haven’t said otherwise. I just said that fossil fuels are not a source of energy, just a carrier, it embodies solar energy captured millions of years ago.
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-04-26/there-are-just-two-sources-of-energy/
69tank69 t1_ixbfj41 wrote
Solar comes from nuclear fusion so there is only type of energy if you want to use that logic, but calling fossil fuels solar energy is deliberately misleading
drsnafu t1_ix5eymw wrote
Isn't hydrogen the favourite green energy source of the fossil fuel industry since it uses a lot of the same infrastructure, when in reality is not actually very 'green'?