this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (27 children)

Is fuel cell tech actually easier, cheaper, or better than batteries in any way?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

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:

  • 6.2MWh of Heat
  • 2.2 tons of Methane
  • 4.9 tons of pure water

The outputs are:

  • 6 tons of CO2
  • 1.1 tons of H2

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

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.

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