Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
Since we can't just dig up or find hydrogen, hydrogen is basically just a different kind of battery.
So at the end of the day
Electricity -> Hydrogen -> Fuel Cell -> Electricity -> Motor -> Zoom
vs
Electricity -> Battery -> Electricity -> Motor -> Zoom
The 2nd is probably going to be more efficient since you pretty much get out all the electricity you put into a battery. Making hydrogen isn't very efficient.
Hydrogen does have some theoretical advantages in that it's a chemical reaction so the energy density is higher, but in practice it's a very difficult gas to work with. If it was cheaper or easier to work with there might be a case for it (and maybe there still is in some applications), but it seems like just getting better batteries is a better overall path.
Jason at Engineering Explained had a good video on the Toyota hydrogen V8 combustion car and while it focuses on that (fuel cells would be way better than combustion hydrogen), a lot of the other issues with hydrogen still apply.
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That's a much more succinct way to put what I was trying to describe. For me, I think it was described a little bit more:
Electricity -> Hydrogen -> Fuel Cell -> Electricity -> Motor -> Zoom
vs
Renewable/non-renewable fuel -> Electricity -> Battery -> Electricity -> Motor -> Zoom
Basically the same but you're shuffling the order. And the reason why hydrogen specifically is the thing selected is that it's common and considered green (for meeting carbon neutral requirements). IIRC I think he also mentioned he thinks hydrogen could meet certain industrial applications that pure EV might not, but I'm not sure because it was such a while ago.