Nope! And most hydrogen is fossil fuel (methane) derived and horribly energy inefficient. At this point it’s green washing at best.
Edit: adding data:
Steam-Methane Reforming (SMR) accounts for about 95% of all hydrogen production on earth. It uses a huge amount of heat, water, and methane to produce hydrogen.
Hydrolysis, the main competing method, and the one most touted by hydrogen backers, accounts for about 4% of hydrogen production.
This method takes in only pure water and electricity, but it’s efficiency is abysmal at some 52%. In every case, a modern kinetic, thermal, or chemical battery will exceed this efficiency.
Other methods are being looked into, but it’s thermodynamically impossible for the resulting H2 to produce more energy than it takes to create the H2. So at best today we could use H2 as a crappy battery, one that takes a lot of methane to create.
When it’s a documented scientific process and it’s scaled up and used in the real world to displace the other methods, I’ll be ready to acknowledge hydrogen as a valid part of energy infrastructure.
Yes but hydrogen has storage problems in that it messes with storage containers making long term storage potentially hazardous. How much of that last part is bullshit I am not qualified to answer but it sounds fucky to me.
That is not true. I’m working on a hydrogen refueling project right now with a steel, ASME code storage vessel. I asked the manufacturer specifically and they confirmed that hydrogen embrittlement is not a concern and does not affect the lifetime of the vessel.
Is fuel cell tech actually easier, cheaper, or better than batteries in any way?
Nope! And most hydrogen is fossil fuel (methane) derived and horribly energy inefficient. At this point it’s green washing at best.
Edit: adding data:
Steam-Methane Reforming (SMR) accounts for about 95% of all hydrogen production on earth. It uses a huge amount of heat, water, and methane to produce hydrogen.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SMR%2BWGS-1.png
For inputs:
The outputs are:
The overall energy in vs energy out is at most 85% efficient. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016236122001867
Hydrolysis, the main competing method, and the one most touted by hydrogen backers, accounts for about 4% of hydrogen production.
This method takes in only pure water and electricity, but it’s efficiency is abysmal at some 52%. In every case, a modern kinetic, thermal, or chemical battery will exceed this efficiency.
Other methods are being looked into, but it’s thermodynamically impossible for the resulting H2 to produce more energy than it takes to create the H2. So at best today we could use H2 as a crappy battery, one that takes a lot of methane to create.
It’s called electrolysis, and is now at 95% efficiency: https://newatlas.com/energy/hysata-hydrogen-mass-production/
When it’s a documented scientific process and it’s scaled up and used in the real world to displace the other methods, I’ll be ready to acknowledge hydrogen as a valid part of energy infrastructure.
Yes but hydrogen has storage problems in that it messes with storage containers making long term storage potentially hazardous. How much of that last part is bullshit I am not qualified to answer but it sounds fucky to me.
That is not true. I’m working on a hydrogen refueling project right now with a steel, ASME code storage vessel. I asked the manufacturer specifically and they confirmed that hydrogen embrittlement is not a concern and does not affect the lifetime of the vessel.