Shell has quietly closed down all its hydrogen filling stations in the UK

submitted by [deleted] from hydrogeninsight.com

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[–]SoCo 7 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 3 fun -  (11 children)

All these alternatives to gas/diesel only seem like a good idea, but only in the start, when you don't think to hard about it. Maybe one day these will become realistic, when mining rare materials for batteries don't hurt the environment more than coal power plants, batteries last more than a couple years, and using the super clean and abundant hydrogen becomes more practical.

[–]Alienhunter 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (10 children)

Hydrogen makes alot of sense really it's just massively expensive when compared to simply pumping oil out of the ground.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

Hydrogen makes alot of sense really it's just massively expensive when compared to simply pumping oil out of the ground.

It isn't. It would require rather large infrastructure investments, but a lot of hydrogen can be produced for next to nothing if it is in place. Solar and wind have very uneven power delivery, resulting in excess power sometimes that is wasted, and at other times, not enough, and coal or natural gas needs to burned to produce the energy. The excess power from peak solar/wind times can be used to apply current to regular water and split off the hydrogen gas and store it at no material cost other than the storage infrastructure and retooling all of our internal combustion engines to run hydrogen, but the source of the hydrogen itself is just water and another renewable electricity

[–]jet199 5 insightful - 4 fun5 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

Frankly if the government don't want to have a windfall tax for the profits made from the super high oil and gas prices then why not make Shell and others build some more infrastructure now instead.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I agree that would be the sensible solution

[–]Alienhunter 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Hydrogen itself is cheap as fuck yes because it's literally everywhere. Producing hydrogen fuel cells you can use in a car isn't cheap, and is currently more expensive than using regular gasoline.

Eventually gasoline will run out due to limited supply, centuries in the future, by which point the higher cost of fuel cells will be an irrelevant detail. They will also get cheaper as time goes on.

You can also just make gasoline from ethenol if you want. But again why bother when it's cheaper to pump from the ground.

I'm still waiting for a wind powered car.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Producing hydrogen fuel cells you can use in a car isn't cheap, and is currently more expensive than using regular gasoline.

I don't disagree, but HFC's arent the only option, hydrogen can be burned in a conventional internal combustion engine with no CO2 emissions

[–]SoCo 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

My assumptions are that hydrogen is cheap/easy to produce, but hard and expensive to safely store and transport. This makes the on-the-go production fuel cell seem extremely appealing, yet we have a ways to go before that becomes efficient enough. I have confidence that, over time, through the use of materials/alloys, nano tech printing of special shapes, and if they'd listen to historic free energy patent inventors....possibly a few tricks with capacitance and controlled electric discharge frequency... that someday that efficiency might make fuel cells very practice...maybe even wow'ing.

[–]iamonlyoneman 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

If it's more expensive then it doesn't make sense.

[–]Alienhunter 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's more expensive now. Gasoline is cheap because it is easy to get. Slowly but surely the easy to get pockets of oil will be used up, making it more and more expensive with time. Eventually it reaches a point where hydrogen is cheaper to produce than gasoline. Since we can never really run out of hydrogen.

[–]iamonlyoneman 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The planet is literally making oil right now. Nobody knows how it's formed and anyone who says they do is bamboozling or deluded.

[–]Alienhunter 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You can make oil in a lab if you want. We can make gasoline from corn if we want. It's really easy to make. It's just more expensive than pumping it out of the ground at present.