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by isaiahg 1566 days ago
Electric is clearly the future of consumer cars but there's definitely a future for hydrogen in industries like shipping. Whether it's container ships or 18 wheelers, hydrogen has many benefits including the ability to fuel up faster. We already have a dual system for two kinds of fuels, gasoline/diesel, I can see a future where the two main types become electric/hydrogen.
1 comments
nradov 1566 days ago
Hydrogen is unlikely to see widespread marine use due to engineering costs and safety risks. It's more likely that merchant ships will run on ammonia, biodiesel, methanol, or LNG.
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0ldskool 1566 days ago
What safety risks exist that do not exist for other forms of fuel and energy?? Wouldn't marine be the perfect use of hydrogen? The only output is water. Energy storage of hydrogen is cheaper by weight then battery. If there are some solar panels and/or wind generators on part of the vessel then couldn't it technically stay adrift from shore forever (temporarily forget food for humans or degradation of the boat without maintenance).
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nradov 1566 days ago
Liquid fuels are generally less flammable, and minor leaks don't present a serious problem. Batteries will never have the capacity needed by long distance merchant ships. Fuel weight isn't very relevant, it's tankage volume that matters more. Ships don't have enough free surface area to generate much useful power from solar panels. Wind generators are counterproductive if you actually want to go anywhere because the extra drag exceeds any power they generate.

Long term I expect we'll primarily use nuclear and renewable power plants on shore to drive manufacturing of synthetic liquid hydrocarbon fuels for marine and aviation markets. That appears to be the safest option and won't require rebuilding entire major industries.

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KennyBlanken 1566 days ago
All the people commenting in support of hydrogen here have no idea of the logistical challenges in handling a fuel that is so thin it leaks through metal.
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rsfern 1566 days ago
Well “leaks through metal” sort of misconstrues things, “dissolves in metal” or “diffuses in metal” would be a better phrasing.

I think a more relevant issue is hydrogen embrittlement, it is definitely a problem for many alloys. I don’t think it’s a show stopper for fuel cells though, and it’s an important research topic that’s been worked on a long time

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