Hydrogen as fuel - take 3

Once more the simplest and most abundant element in the universe ( even if locally locked up in
durable molecules) is being reported as the energy
of the future. Hope this time is for real. Estimate of
Hydrogen economy in “only” 15 years ! I’ve become an old man waiting for this to happen. Kinda like clean fusion reactors that have always been 25-50 years out :wink:

I am a huge fan and believer of hydrogen. Way more so than electric. Anybody want to touch on the environmental mess used batteries cause. Or lithium mining. It is not green. Or the human cost of cobalt mining.

Most people don’t realize that Texas is a leader in alternative and reusable energy.

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It’s not really an either/or – hydrogen, if/when implemented, would likely be a part of a broader power generation portfolio. We’ll still be using batteries to power our cars, but a larger portion of that power will come from hydrogen rather than coal or NG or oil.

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I don’t read the paper but I’m curious as to how they plan to stabilize the Hydrogen molecules?

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The plan was to make hydrogen and other alternative energies our future oil. Hydrogen will do that soon because they see oil is volatile in the current economy. I appreciate houston being the energy capital of the world and leading the way into the future.

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Hydrogen: What could possibly go wrong!

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Plan to store it in underground caverns per the article. Not sure if salt domes fit this criteria or not.

I was hoping we would be using Dilithium by now. Although that is turning out to be problematic.

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Exactly. In the fifties it was nuclear power. My dad and mom, no kids yet, were living in the Ohio river valley between Pittsburgh and the Ohio boarder when the first nuclear power plant was brought online in the fifties. According to my dad, two to three weeks after the start up, most of the leaves fell off the trees. In the middle of summer. I’m sure it was nothing.

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That won’t stabilize the hydrogen. I remember extracting pure hydrogen from water in high school chemistry class. Then, we would detonate the small amount of hydrogen…it made a audible pop and we’re only talking about starting with like 20 ml of water. Maybe less.

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I think I’ll pass on the Hydrogen car (nukemobile).
hydrogen-bomb-car3

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Those myths are debunked. Please, stop spreading lies.

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No, the initial article does not give the details of the storage problem , but I inferred it was probably the lowest cost option with highest risk. This article says
Salt domes are already being used for hydrogen
Storage ( which is news to me !).

Although the storage of gaseous hydrogen in salt caverns already is used on a full industrial scale, the approach is not applicable in all regions due to varying geological conditions

But this article also addresses methods of more safely storing it in more stable forms.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360319919310195. But nothing is free, and these
methods all require more energy input in storage or extraction phase.

I recall doing the high school chemistry lab with hydrogen too :slight_smile: I always kinda regretted not taking
even one chemistry or biology class at UH, even though I was an NSM major…wasn’t in the degree plan. I burned my science electives in physics and
Geology. Can I get a do over ?

According to a MIT group they say they will have Fusion ready for commercial use in by 2030. But I already have bought some hydrogen stocks. PLUG has hydrogen engines in the big fork lifts at Loew’s and Home Depot. I think Amazon uses them as well but not sure.

That explosion was not because the hydrogen just went off without another event happening. You can’t mix hydrogen and flame and not get an explosion. The new science on this is much better and is currently in use.

In 1998, a guy had come up with an invention to run a car on water, extracting the hydrogen. He had an operational car and it was going to be a big deal, but he died suddenly.

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Hydrogen is explosive so what about car wrecks?

Gee I don’t know, cars today don’t have anything inside them that could possibly explode already.

Oh just a small nuke that can take out one block. That’s all. :smile: