I think we are taking the wrong approach by thinking of hydrogen being transported in liquid or highly-compressed form. Natural gas has a high hydrogen content and the infrastructure for distribution is already in place.

If we use intermittent electricity sources (such as wind or solar energy) to generate hydrogen and distribute by existing pipes we can use hydrogen for domestic heating (in here in the UK, that would make us less dependent on Russia as a supplier).

If we are to move towards the use of hydrogen as a car fuel, the logical step would be to supply the hydrogen at a normal pressure to filling stations and carry out the compression there. Sure, it’s costly, but compare it to the cost of transporting liquid hydrogen, not to mention the safety aspect of working with large quantities of highly compressed hydrogen.

As a byline, remember that the other product of electrolysis is oxygen which also has a fair market value.

Regards,

Ian Sinclair

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.