I tested a hydrogen-powered bicycle. Is this the future?
I tested a hydrogen-powered bicycle. Is this the future?
This past week, I attended the Micromobility Europe event in Amsterdam, where I saw many familiar company faces and several...
Hydrogen is the future of nothing but energy scams.
It has the big advantage of easy long term energy storage. You can store power made by PV in summer and use it in winter.
It has the big advantage of easy long term energy storage.
Citation needed. Hydrogen leaks in spaceflight (where hydrogen is often used as a rocket fuel) is incredibly common because H2 is so freakin' tiny.
Aren't there significant challenges with storing the smallest molecules in the universe?
The water is cheap but the hydrogen requires special pressurized containers which in turn makes it lose its advantage over normal batteries.
Hydrogen for mass- or space-constrained mobility (eg bikes, automobile, aircraft) faces all the known problems with storing it inside inconvenient shapes and contending with the losses from liquification. Real Engineering has a video on this aspect (Nebula and YouTube) when compared to simply using battery-electric storage.
However, I think hydrogen could be very useful for train locomotives -- which historically had "tenders" that stored the fuel behind the prime mover -- since weight is less of a problem on traction railways. As well as any stationary applications, such as utility-scale hydrogen to time-shift electricity supply, where there may be scales-of-efficiencies to realize. Today's utility-scale battery farms are not exactly gaining any scales-of-efficiency to speak of, because they're just adding more battery cells to the grid.
A singular, massive hydrogen storage tank would be a sphere, benefitting from a favorable volume to surface area ratio, among other possibilities. And such a sphere would make better use of land by growing in height, whereas multi-storey battery farms would be fire hazards. But these are just cursory conjectures.
Where a battery bank has a hazard of starting a fire as well as being a hazard if there is fire nearby, an enormous hydrogen tank is only a hazard if there is fire nearby, but it's an explosive hazard.
How would it compare to storing enormous amounts of propane, in terms of safety only? Would the same safeguards work?
Shorter term stationary storage seems like an interesting idea, has anyone studied it out to see how effective, affordable, and efficient it is?
Hydrogen leaks ! Dihydrogen is the smallest molecule so it can pass through the smallest smallest gap.
Containing hydrogen is extremely difficult and it is an extremely difficult challenge for rocket manufacturers.
I wonder if the water is drinkable, that would be pretty cool if your bike also produced hydration on rides so you wouldn't have to carry extra water.
The hydroride site says the green bottle contains 20g hydrogen, that might make 180g water, but is still not a lot if you're thirsty. But can 20g of Hydrogen really take a bike 60km ?
Maybe? Warning Half-asses napkin math here but there are 286 KJ in a gram of hydrogen. So that 20 grams has 5720 KJ which converted to Watt hours is 1589 Wh. From my googling hydrogen fuel cells are 40 - 60 percent efficient. So half that to 750 Wh. Which is comparable to most e-bikes rated for 20Km of range. There are some issues with hydrogen. Converting water to hydrgron is only 70-80% efficient and converting that hydrogen to electricity is 30-60 percent efficient. Compare that to li-ion battery which can be charged at close to 99%. That mean hydrogen waste so much more electricity. Which is why I'm a hydrogen hater. I much prefer putting solar energy directly into batteries instead of the converting it hydrogen and back again at great lost.
You would lose electrolytes though, you would need to bring them on longer trips.
Doesn't look like it produces a lot either, so yeah, I guess it could only supplement your water supply.
You'd have to sweat a lot for that to be a factor. Not that it is irrelevant, but humans can drink distilled water just fine. In fact, there are regions, where bottled water is almost exclusively distilled.
So as long as you don't plan to participate in the Tour de France, you'll be fine.
When hydrogen reacts with oxygen it produces pure water. Pure water is quite reactive and will leave chemical burns on your skin. The reason is that pure water will try its best to absorb minerals, etc. And your body contains a lot of minerals and other stuff. Never drink chemically pure water!
Hydrogen as a use case only works for already very heavy vehicles like trucks. Even for normal cars it's a stupid idea.
Now using it for small mobility, thats maximizing idiocy.
I think you're being a little too generous; the only use-case where I'm aware of it being optimal is rocket fuel. Trucks retain their fuel for long enough that storage and leaks become a problem unless you have impractically heavy tanks.
I think trains and excess generated wind/solar energy storage are also use cases.
I still think these strange sounding, deadend ideas (like hydrogen bikes) still have some use, because you don't know what helpful discovery might be found, even in failure to accomplish the main objective of the project.
I could see it working for ride share but I also can't imagine anyone attempting that.
No.