Guardian: Hydrogen cars and electrolysers: the dawn of Australia's hydrogen economy?

[nationalize the fed]

Two large-scale hydrogen facilities in the ACT could mark a turning point in the use of clean tech for transport and heating

The Guardian, Sunday 2 October 2016

The hydrogen economy has been a long time coming. The use of hydrogen as a replacement energy source for oil and gas has been talked about since the early 1970s when the term was first coined by an engineer at General Motors in the US.


Tanks marked with O2 for oxygen and H2 for hydrogen, part of the electrolysis installations, at a hybrid power plant in Germany. Photograph: Bernd Settnik/EPA

It still hasn’t really arrived. And doubters remain. They point to the heavy infrastructure needed to support the technology, the huge amount of energy it consumes, and wonder how it can compete with the falling costs of wind and solar energy, and the surging interest in electric vehicles (EVs) .

Ironically, it is those very factors that are making the idea of a hydrogen economy appealing again. Wind and solar provide cheap energy, EVs are perfecting the drive trains [the power delivery system from engine to wheels] that hydrogen cars will use, and there have been significant technology breakthroughs making the hardware needed to make hydrogen much more cost-competitive.

Now it appears that in Australia, the hydrogen economy is going to have its first home in the Australian Capital Territory. Having put in place the architecture and the contracts to ensure that the equivalent of 100% of the electricity needs are sourced from wind and solar by 2020, the Labor government in the ACT is looking at how that clean energy can be used for transport and heating.

The environment and energy minister, Simon Corbell, recently announced that the two companies – Spain’s Union Fenosa and France’s Neoen – that won bids to provide electricity to build large wind farms to supply the ACT will invest $180m to develop hydrogen facilities...snip

...Heron says using electricity at low cost means fuel for hydrogen cars might be around 75c/litre....snip more:

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/oct/03/hydrogen-cars-electrolysers-dawn-australia-hydrogen-economy

~50 kWh = 1 Kg H2, 1 Kg H2 = ~70 Miles of range for one 4,000 lb car + 4 200lb adults. That's value.



Oz: H2 is #1

[TXCritter]

1. What materials for the engine block?

My understanding is that one of the big problems with hydrogen cars is heat. Ceramic engines have been proposed as alternatives to steel because of this. Have they overcome the heating problem?

[nationalize the fed]

2. Fuel Cell Hot Weather Test +120 Degrees in Death Valley

Here's the cold test -30 C in Yellowknife Canada

Toyota has done an incredible job on this car. Honda's Fuel Cell car comes out later this year, and they have been working on a Home Solar Hydrogen system now for years.

http://world.honda.com/FuelCell/SolarHydrogenStation/

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. There is no engine block. This is an electric vehicle, powered by a fuel cell rather than a battery.

It’s possible to run an internal combustion engine with hydrogen. However, typically, when people talk about hydrogen powered vehicles at this point, they mean hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles.

From the article cited above: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/oct/03/hydrogen-cars-electrolysers-dawn-australia-hydrogen-economy

…

The first is hydrogen cars. These are often dismissed by EV enthusiasts as being just like petrol cars but with different fuel. That’s not exactly right. Hydrogen cars will use the same electric drive train as EVs, and because EVs are now a major focus of production, half the development problem is solved. Furthermore, in hydrogen cars, the fuel cell – which is as easy to fill as a petrol car, according to its proponents – replaces the petrol engine, while in EVs, it’s the battery that replaces the engine.

…

[TXCritter]

4. *headdesk* Duh.

Sorry, yes, I should have realized.

[nationalize the fed]

5. Jack Nicholson was H2 before H2 was Cool

Bob "Area 51" Lazar has a particle accelerator in his backyard