{"id":266913,"date":"2023-07-12T12:55:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T10:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=266913"},"modified":"2023-07-12T12:55:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T10:55:23","slug":"right-daily-caller-green-hydrogen-is-no-miracle-solution-for-carbon-free-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=266913","title":{"rendered":"Right, Daily Caller, Green Hydrogen Is No Miracle Solution for Carbon Free Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Linnea Lueken<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Daily Caller<\/em>\u00a0(DCNF) recently posted an article by contributor John Hugh DeMastri describing significant issues likely to limit the effectiveness of the Biden administration\u2019s plans to invest up to $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to \u201cgreen hydrogen.\u201d DCNF\u2019s analysis correctly concludes that green hydrogen is expensive and adds complexity to power generation that makes little sense when other fuels are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Energy (DOE) says they will develop green hydrogen infrastructure with a \u201cdemand side support mechanism<\/a>,\u201d which they say will \u201cprovide multi-year support for clean hydrogen produced by competitively selected projects,\u201d which are affiliated with the DOE-supported Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hydrogen fuel itself is not new, it can be made from natural gas or methane, but \u201cgreen\u201d hydrogen, as opposed to other methods of generating hydrogen, uses only renewables like wind or solar to convert water into hydrogen for fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the DCNF article, \u201cBiden\u2019s Billion Dollar Hydrogen Program Makes No \u2018Economic Or Common Sense,\u2019 Industry Experts Say<\/a>,\u201d various energy sector experts explain why, despite the technology\u2019s long existence, it hasn\u2019t found large scale commercial success.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the post:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process of manufacturing green hydrogen \u2014 known as electrolysis \u2014 converts water into hydrogen using renewable power, and the hydrogen it generates is nearly 14 times as expensive as natural gas to generate the same amount of power, Isaac Orr, a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment told the DCNF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While proponents of green hydrogen \u201cenvision massive facilities\u201d using electrolysis, such facilities are not cost-effective, Jonathan Lesser, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute studying energy, told the DCNF. In addition, hydrogen is difficult to transport, because it can damage the steel used in existing oil and gas pipelines and has the potential to leak, creating an explosion risk, said Lesser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lesser told DCNF that there are no large-scale power plants that use green hydrogen because it is prohibitively expensive, and because hydrogen\u2019s low density means it requires much more storage space than other fuels. In addition, electrolysis requires larges volumes of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lesser is correct. While the calorific value (energy content) of hydrogen is high by mass, it is very low by volume because of the low density of the fuel. In fact,\u00a0The Engineering Toolbox<\/a>\u00a0reports that hydrogen has a gross calorific value of only 341 BTU\/ft3<\/sup>, compared to natural gas at 1090 BTU\/ft3<\/sup>. In other words, natural gas by volume has three times the energy content of hydrogen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a similar issue with biofuels like ethanol, or wood-pellet biomass, as explained in several\u00a0Climate Realism<\/em>\u00a0posts,\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>, for instance, where their low energy density makes them poor substitutes for fuels like natural gas and coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the pipeline issue has already become a stumbling block. The extent of existing hydrogen pipelines is limited and existing natural gas pipelines cannot, in their current state, carry hydrogen. The DOE\u2019s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies office describes<\/a> a few issues with using existing natural gas pipelines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n