Iceland goes Hydrogen...can it be work here? (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

Sounds interesting. I wonder if it could work here? It should start with Public transportations systems where they can easily travel fewer filling stations.

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[Jeff Gatie]

Iceland is energy independent because geothermal is cheap and plentiful there. So they have a cheap, replenishable source of power to produce the H2, which itself is energy return on investment (EROI) negative. Contrary to the article, Hydrogen cannot "replace oil" because it is not an energy source (oil has an EROI of 17:1 -damn those journalists that never took a science course), it is an energy carrier (a pretty efficient, powerful and clean one). But, you need a cheap, clean and replenishable source of energy (anyone know of one?) to produce the H2 from water or hydrocarbons or you are polluting and using more unreplenishables than you were before. So unless the rest of the world is like Iceland, we are back to square one.

 

[Scott L]

Actually some major cities have buses that run on natural gas. The bus I ride says it, and I know Denver & NYC have it too.

 

[mark alan]

Hydrogen is a pipe dream, in Iceland or anywhere. If you have enough excess electricity to generate hydrogen, you would always be better off just using the electricity to run electric cars. Adding the extra, highly inefficient, step of making hydrogen in order to power fuel cells cars (which will always be more expensive than electric cars), will never make sense.

Hydrogen could theoretically be used as a power generation storage process. Suppose you have a wind generation system. At times, the wind isn't blowing, and you can't make electricity. However, you could use your excess electricity, generated during high wind periods and otherwise wasted, to produce hydrogen for storage. The hydrogen could then be used to supplement electricity generation during low wind periods.

Hydrogen may have a use in the future, but it will not be for transportation.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

(some of?) boston's fleet runs on CNG.

CJ

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Busses here in Fort Worth run on CNG as well. In fact I think they do almost everywhere in the US. As far as hydrogen vs. electric cars, as long as lead-acid batteries are the electric storage medium of choice, hydrogen+fuel-cell will be the better electricity storage option. Lead-acid cells are not wonderfully efficient, and they are dreadfully heavy — besides which, while in a crash the hydrogen tank would rupture and vent, with the flammable gas dissipating within a few seconds, the batteries would stay in place. Besides the risk of electrocution to you and the EMS crew [already a concern with hybrids], all that sulphuric acid and lead sulphate is not exactly going to be pleasant when it leaks out.

 

[Buzz Foster]

I'm betting on ethanol fuel cells. Ethanol is easier to make, store, transport, and use than hydrogen could ever hope to be.

About the only way hydrogen could work would be for us to have success with fusion, and build enough fusion reactors to supply us with the electricity needed to split hydrogen from oxygen in water.