Vickrin

Vickrin t1_iyf4pmm wrote

> rather the way in which it is currently stored in gaseous form will improve as technology progresses

Technology cannot change the laws of physics.

There is a base minimum amount of space requires to store gaseous hydrogen, if you go below that you get liquid hydrogen and even bigger storage problems.

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Vickrin t1_iy5ohqn wrote

Exploring the concept is never wasted, people might learn something.

Putting a hydrogen engine in an aircraft is not going to be a viable option for the forseeable future.

Aircraft are probably one of the hardest things to move to a green fuel source.

Batteries are also awful when it comes to aircraft.

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Vickrin t1_iy5hgyq wrote

1kg of diesel can sit in a metal tank, at room temperature, no pressure needed.

Do you know how much space 1kg of hydrogen takes up?

Liquid hydrogen needs to be stored at -250c at 1 bar or more of pressure. This requires high strength storage. This means your 1kg of hydrogen ends up actually weighing a hell of a lot more than 1kg. Keeping it cool also requires energy which means you get even less out of your hydrogen fuel.

Sure you could store it as a gas but that would require 350-700 bar of pressure which requires even MORE expensive storage.

It's not as simple as the raw maths.

Can you imagine the damage if a train derailed with high pressure hydrogen tanks? Diesel doesn't explode and neither does electricity.

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Vickrin t1_iy5cjcj wrote

Hydrogen is just a poor fuel compared to hydrocarbons.

Hydrogen takes up space and is heavy in the quantities you'd need.

Electricity is great because you don't need to ship it with your goods.

People trying to reinvent the train should just try trains first.

Japan has an amazing train network and yet nobody is copying them.

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