Quote:
Originally Posted by snootchiebootchies
Yes, generating hydrogen by electrolysis is a net energy loss. Hydrogen makes sense in certain applications where gains in efficiency from using it in a combustion device helps offset some of the loss from generating the hydrogen.
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What efficiency from using it in a combustion device? Burning it is really inefficient unless you're just after the heat (i.e. heating a home).
In a car, burning hydrogen is horribly inefficient, you're far better off going wind turbine -> battery -> move car than wind turbine -> generate hydrogen -> burn hydrogen -> move car.
Fuel cells are far better to use with the hydrogen, and that's still not as good as a battery.
Where hydrogen really has an advantage is in energy density. Batteries are big and heavy, takes a lot of batteries to store the same amount of energy as a few kg of hydrogen.