this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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Hydrogen

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A community about hydrogen and its use as a way to fight climate change.

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Hydrogen startups are on pace to raise more VC funding in 2023 than in the prior two years combined, according to PitchBook's 2024 Industrial Technology Outlook.

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[–] nomecks 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have an EV that I charge in my garage. You will never get me back in a car where I have to go fill it somewhere. It doesn't matter how good the tech is, the personal convenience of hydrogen is less than BEV, which is all anyone actually cares about.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So you will never charge at a public station ever again? You will never travel long distances for the rest of your life?

Seriously, fuck off with this obvious lie. In reality, this is a made-up argument by BEV arguments. Of course you will charge publicly at some point in the future. And since driving happens far away from your house most of the time, it is the more convenient solution. Not to mention people who don’t have a garage to begin with.

[–] nomecks 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Fuck off with the obvious nit picking. You got me. I use super chargers like 1% of the time. I'll definitely switch to less convenient hydrogen when it comes out thanks to your amazing ability to argue the least relevant bit of my point. Why wouldn't I want to stand out in the freezing cold a few times a week filling my car with highly explosive gas instead of plugging it in like my phone at home?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then you admit you can tolerate public charging. So you have no argument to make.

And here's the more shocking fact: Home refueling is possible. In fact, it has always been possible. Things like lawnmowers or leafblowers have traditionally been refueled at home. You always could have some kind of fuel delivery service. But it never took off. Why? Because the gas station was the better idea and everyone agreed with it.

Same is true with hydrogen. In fact, you can envision some kind of home electrolysis system and such concepts exist too. But very few people wanted it. Proving that this need is a fictional one. No one wanted it until BEV fanatic suddenly decided that they wanted it.

[–] nomecks 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you think this is high school debate club? I can do all this complicated shit that nobody in reality will actually do and that proves you right? Nobody is going to choose hydrogen over BEV, nobody is going to build out a hydrogen distribution network because BEV will bankrupt any company that tries and nobody is going to install some stupid hydrogen generating crap when they can more efficiently put that energy directly into a battery. It doesn't matter how clean or better you think hydrogen is, IT'S NOT AS CONVENIENT!

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You're too deep in your BEV fanaticism then. Of course millions of people will choose hydrogen over BEVs. Simply because they have no choice. In the long run, this is going to be the solution nearly everyone adopts. It is basically a one-to-one replacement for conventional cars.

[–] nomecks 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm sure you have something to back up "they'll have no choice", because right now it seems like hydrogen is getting left in the dust. Even the champions of hydrogen, Toyota, have relented and are building a fleet of BEVs. Spoiler alert: they're not going to build out two separate assembly lines, no matter how much they want hydrogen to win.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Again, you are too deep in your BEV fanaticism to realize obvious facts. In reality, this is a dead end. Car companies are only doing it for the subsidies and because governments demand it. Once this era passes, BEVs will fade away into obscurity or at best a niche. We already seeing signs of this, as BEVs sales have slowed (hidden by huge discounts and fleet sales BTW).

At some point, there will have to be a real attempt at zero emissions transportation. One that works for everyone. That inevitably leads to hydrogen cars. If not, then derivative ideas like e-fuels.

This won't happen all at once, nor will we suddenly pivot from one idea to the other. Hydrogen cars will steadily grow in popularity until anti-hydrogen denial becomes unsustainable and eventually people will embrace the concept.

[–] nomecks 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It won't happen at all, because you can't seem to make any arguments beside "It's cleaner" and "You're a BEV fanatic". If that's seriously the arguments for hydrogen, it's doomed.

The truth is that you're arguing that a theoretical technology is going to win out over the one with tens of billions of dollars of current invetment and millions of vehicles already operating. All this while providing no actual benefit to the end consumer over BEV.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Green hydrogen, literally made from water and electricity from renewable energy sources, is impossible in your mind.

That's basically the same stuff climate change deniers said about all green energy. Ironically, even including BEVs. Repeating the same rhetoric against hydrogen is totally self-discrediting.

It's immediately obvious that there's no credible argument against hydrogen or hydrogen vehicles. At best, you had some naive technical arguments, but those are easily debunked by pointing out that hydrogen cars already exist. So there are no arguments left at all.

Guys like you are pretty much stuck in the past. It's now a matter of letting reality make a mockery of guys like you. Just like it did with deniers of wind and solar, even BEVs.

[–] nomecks 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Again, why am I going to make hydrogen when I can more efficiently charge a battery? Why would a charging station do the same?

Hydrogen cars exist? Show me the commercial implementation of it.

Guys like you have no idea how the world actually operates. It's telling that you have to resort to attacking my character ("people like me are like this") rather than having your argument stand on facts.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because you don't need a giant battery anymore. As it turns out, this is the biggest savings of them all. In fact, it likely ensures that hydrogen cars are the greener type of car.

Yes, hydrogen cars exist commercially right now. You can even go to a dealership and buy one right now, assuming you live in the right area. It's a mirror of how BEVs got adopted in the first place.

You're pretty much projecting at this point. When you adopt rhetoric identical to what climate change deniers say, you have clearly lost the plot. You either have to admit that you've drank the kool-aid on BEVs, and is now spouting BEV bullshit, or start claiming that green energy is impossible altogether, since your words have been used against all green energy before.

[–] nomecks 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Says the obvious troll...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As an EV owner, I would actually love to get a hydrogen car, home charging is just not as convenient especially for someone like me who travels long every day and unless you are in the main city, quick refills will always be better. Have an ioniq 5, the EV depreciation also pretty much sucks.

That being said EVs have come a long way, great improvements over the years and they continue to improve, charging is not the only issue, battery weight (I can literraly feel how heavy ioniq 5 is while driving compared to my old gas car), depreciation, degradation and etc.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

FCEVs are basically BEVs, but without the giant battery weighing it down. It should be pretty obvious that FCEVs are a good idea to any BEV fan. Sadly, too many of them have drank the kool-aid and are opposed to further innovation beyond their own car.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

But fuel cells still rely on raw materials and I imagine they are more energy intensive to produce and more expensive as a technology to develop and produce than the already established ICE technology which has been around for decades.

This is why I am personally rooting for hydrogen on ICE to be honest - besides the unmatched emotion an ICE can give you obviously haha.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

A fuel cell is staggeringly small compared to the alternative. For instance, the fuel cell stack in the Mirai only weighs around 50kg. As a result, this is likely to be the cheapest and least resource intensive powertrain in the long-run.

ICE will have advantages in terms of design maturity and a having century of optimization. It will probably always be more desirable in sports cars. But eventually, even ICE cars will probably lose to FCEVs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

it seems like despite the fuel cell itself being relatively small, I just googled the weight of Toyota's hydrogen corolla racing prototype, which weighs 4210 lbs, while the toyota mirai weighs around 4400 lbs, Google bard also says Toyota is aiming to make it's hydrogen combustion corolla weigh less than 3,700 lbs as development continues.

Super interesting, I honestly think ICE development is being pushed to even more advanced levels, I think with the right infrastructure, they can certainly compete and if they take off I don't see fuel cells being favored over them.

It's crazy how despite how old the ICE technology is, these companies can still find ways to keep improving it, despite the engine being much heavier, the overall car weight is actually less than the Mirai which itself is a great feat. I'm personally optimistic about Hydrogen combustion for sure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also it seems like the weight on the Mirai could also be due to the battery it has as a backup after the fuel cell itself, and then electric motors, if you look at the whole package it does get heavier.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

BEVs need spare battery capacity too. Plus electric motors. The main issue is that the Mirai is based off of the Toyota Crown, which is already pretty heavy. If they really wanted too, they could've shaved off a huge amount of weight.