Hydrogen, no matter the colour, cannot stop the looming renewable energy train crash
JULY 25, 2023
tags: hydrogen
By Paul Homewood
What a delight to read an article written by an actual energy expert, instead of some dopey environmental reporter!
The Royal Society of Chemistry describes hydrogen as “a colourless, odourless gas”. It’s up there at the top if the Periodic Table: Group 1, Period 1. It is the most abundant gas in the universe, but on Earth it is mostly found bound with oxygen in the form of water – very little hydrogen gas is present in the atmosphere as it quickly escapes the Earth’s gravity and floats away into outer space.
Yet this ephemeral gas is touted as the solution to the great looming problem of renewable power – carbon free energy storage at scale. The obvious issues with relying on intermittent wind and solar energy can be solved by using excess renewable energy on sunny, windy days to produce hydrogen gas. This can then be stored for use on less windy days, whether that be by direct combustion to generate heat, or to generate electricity, or in other industrial uses.
The different ways in which this invisible element can be produced have been assigned different colours: green, blue, brown, yellow, turquoise and pink hydrogen. Also, white hydrogen. Helpfully, there is no universal naming convention so hydrogen colour definitions may change over time, or between countries.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/07/25/hydrogen-no-matter-the-colour-cannot-stop-the-looming-renewable-energy-train-crash/
