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NNadir

(35,061 posts)
3. I guess there are people with such poor educations that they don't know how hydrogen is made. One could open...
Thu Nov 21, 2024, 06:41 AM
Nov 21

...pretty much any scientific paper, on the subject and find out all about it.

On the other hand, one could be credulous and believe the fossil fuel inspired lie that hydrogen is "green."

Here's one, among many thousands, with a nice pie chart of the type they teach seventh graders to interpret:



The caption:

Figure 1. Global current sources of H2 production (a), and H2 consumption sectors (b).


Progress on Catalyst Development for the Steam Reforming of Biomass and Waste Plastics Pyrolysis Volatiles: A Review Laura Santamaria, Gartzen Lopez, Enara Fernandez, Maria Cortazar, Aitor Arregi, Martin Olazar, and Javier Bilbao, Energy & Fuels 2021 35 (21), 17051-17084]

I referred to this graphic, and reproduced it, discussing a paper in the journal I discussed above here: The current sources and uses of hydrogen.

Oh, wait!!! Some of it made from coal, so what we have here is not exactly a perpetual motion machine confined to methane, but a coal to methane scheme.

The carbon cost of making hydrogen in China has been reported:

Subsidizing Grid-Based Electrolytic Hydrogen Will Increase Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Coal Dominated Power Systems Liqun Peng, Yang Guo, Shangwei Liu, Gang He, and Denise L. Mauzerall Environmental Science & Technology 2024 58 (12), 5187-5195

The text is clear enough.

From the introductory text:

... Currently, nearly all hydrogen in China is either produced directly from fossil fuels (55% from coal gasification and 14% from steam methane reforming (SMR)) or as a byproduct of petroleum refining (28%), with only 1% coming from water electrolysis. (2) Producing 1 kg of coal- or SMR-based hydrogen emits roughly 19 and 10 kg of CO2, respectively. (3) In 2020, hydrogen production from fossil fuels in China emitted ∼322Tg of CO2, equivalent to 25% of total CO2 emissions from industrial processes, a number expected to rise with increasing hydrogen demand. (4) Industrial processes include production of nonmetallic mineral products, chemical, and metal products, as well as production and consumption of halocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. (4)
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It is true that making hydrogen from methane is rather stupid as an energy carrier, since the physical properties of methane are nowhere near as bad as the physical properties of hydrogen, hydrogen's physical properties being horrible.

Of course, if one is an antinuke and doesn't give a fuck about the extreme global heating now observed worldwide, I guess this is OK.

Have a wonderful day.

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