Iâm a bit skeptical about hydrogen being a near term solution. A natural gas hybrid train can lead to significant reductions in CO2 emissions with technology that is known to work.
Erik, would you agree? Skeptic due to âsourceâ of fuel. End result is fine but examine the very beginning of this fuel and it, well, becomes, in your words, âskepticalâ. endmrw0306251534
My first concern with hydrogen is the very low energy density. Second concern is hydrogen embrittlement of various metals at high pressure.
Much skepticism on âgreenâ ways of making hydrogen - easiest way is to make it from natural gas.
The only place you can get a hydrogen powered car is southern California. The fuel costs are so extreme that Toyota as a incentive gives you a 15k gift card for the fuel costs.
One of the few filling stations is along my normal commute to work, so it would be relatively convenient for me.
FWIW, I did get a ride in a hydrogen powered Rav4 10 1/2 years ago. The performance seemed pretty decent and also seemed to be a bit more practical than the electric IQ are company was using to get the SD commuters from the Irvine station to the office in Santa Ana - havenât done that commute for 10 years.
Suspect these âhydrogen trainsâ are more battery trains with onboard recharge from fuel cells. These require some sort of subsidization of the hydrogen supply infrastructure (which was acknowledged as a significant requirement in the original Coradia LINT system) â and in what is now a fairly wide range of circumstances this has not proven âcost-effective enoughâ over simply arranging grid recharge of the battery trainsâŚ
The attempt to have âpervasiveâ hydrogen service-station availability in Southern California is commendable, but as long as they use âgreen hydrogenâ as a source they are pathetically uneconomical compared to using the ârenewable-sourced electricityâ for BEV/plug-in charging.
The only halfway-workable source for vehicular carrier hydrogen is âblue hydrogen with sequestrationâ â largely sourced from natural gas or LNG. And these are really only âpracticalâ in a world that effectively demonizes any carbon emission at all. It remains to be seen how effectively zero-carbon will be supported when we get closer to 2035âŚ