I had an interesting morning involving some hours of a repetitive task requiring minimal brain involvement.
So using one of my two remaining braincells I put on the headphones on and chose to listen to the 'hydrogen' story on a bunch of Youtube videos.
So the basics are this:
Grey hydrogen is created from natural gas, or methane, using steam methane reformation but
without capturing the greenhouse gases made in the process.
Blue hydrogen is an industry term for hydrogen produced from natural gas and supported
by carbon capture and storage.
Green hydrogen (GH2 or GH2) is hydrogen generated by renewable energy or from low-carbon power.
There are a host of videos for your consumption if you are so inclined, here's a link
Hydrogen Cars on VideosBut my takeaways are these.
Grey and Blue Hydrogen is made by using fossil fuels both of which produce polution- albeit Blue is supposedly carbon capture and storage- I don't actually think this Carbon capture and storage thing is actually going to work and subject to how well they can do it. I still reckon it would NOT be anywhere near Zero emmission. So Grey and Blue are definitely OUT
Green Hydrogen is then made from various renewables and is the best way, but is not cheap.
Now get this:
You must then use renewable energy (electricity) to make green hydrogen which is compressed and sent out to refill stations. This is to fill Hydrogen cars which then is converted by the car to generate electricity to drive the electric motor. What the? ...... are they insane?
Why would you expend electricity to make hydrogen to make electricity?. I will bet the efficiencies of this flip flop is quite miserable and also the cost of running a hydrogen car is
heaps more than an EV. There is not going to be enough electricity anyway. All will go to the grids.
Toyota has a hydrogen car they sell in California and there is a small network of filling stations. The cars are sort of US$60,000, but get this. Toyota gives the owner some US$15,000 of free hydrogen refills.
I think Toyota has made a huge mistake in going down the hydrogen route. Good luck filling up your hydrogen car at home too.
A hydrogen car network would lock us poor bunnies in the same money trap that the oil companies have us in with petrol and diesel.
(perhaps that is the dastardly plot?)
I listened to the pros and cons of a dozen Youtube presenters and I am sure that you could not give me a hydrogen car as a gift.
PLS has what the EV industry needs and I am looking forward to enjoying some years of growth and to charging an EV at home in due course.
(20min delay)