A REMINDER : fbbs eyes are not too bad, but they do get tired if he is doing a lot of close work. Mistooks can slop through the nut and are corrected hoopfully next mourning. Please be patient rather than annoyed!
So Can I, Can You?
There are two ways of cooking up a vat of hydrogen. One is electrolysis which we all remember from GCSE science.
When this experiment was dome for fbb at school it did not work. Zilch happened. But, as usual in science lessons, fbb had ro write it up as if it had functioned perfectly.
Seemples! fbb can understand that and will call it “electrical processing“.
But there is a snag. Somebody has to make the electricity. And for hydrogen for buses, you need lots of it!
These are terms which fbb doesn’t fully understand, but he thinks you squirt high pressure steam at a typical hydrocarbon (petrol, diesel, vaseline or candle wax – remember?). The process looks more complex than electrolysis and, no, fbb does not understand the diagram.
But there is a snag. Someone has to make the steam!
So we can do the imaginary sums.
Electrical Processing
1. Uses fuel with emissions …
2. to make electricity …
3. … to make hydrogen out of water.
4. The hydrogen is liquefied, transported and stored with emissions.
5. In the bus the hydrogen goes through a ful cell made with emissions …
6. … where the hydrogen is turned into electricity …
7. … which drives a motor made with emissions.
8. Ultimately the equipment has to be recycled with emissions.
Chemical Processing
1. Uses fuel with emissions …
2. … to make hydrogen out of hydrocarbons with emissions.
3. The process has greenhouse gases (emissions) as a waste product
4. The hydrogen is liquefied, transported and stored with emissions.
5. In the bus the hydrogen goes through a fuel cell made with emissions …
6. … where the hydrogen is turned into electricity …
7. … which drives a motor made with emissions.
8. Ultimately the equipment has to be recycled with emissions.
This video explains some of the downsides of using hydrogen in cars, the most notable being the high cost at every stage of the process.
Depressing – you bet!
But there may be an answer with one of the hydrogen colours.
But beware …
“No such thing as a free lunch” is a popular adage communicating the idea that it is impossible to get something for nothing. The phrase was in use by the 1930s, but its first appearance is unknown. The “free lunch” in the saying refers to the formerly common practice in American bars of offering a “free lunch” in order to entice drinking customers.
The phrase is central to Robert A. Heinlein’s 1966 science-fiction novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, which helped popularize it The free-market economist Milton Friedman also increased its exposure and use, by paraphrasing it as the title of a 1975 book.
On A Nostalgic Note
Next Hydrogen blog : Sunday 23rd July
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