Bernie EcclestonedGreener Alternative To Lithium-ion Battery
Dr. DabblesThis isn’t really an “emerging” battery tech, and there have been all kinds of hyped “breakthroughs” about hydrogen batteries for a long time. The issue here, like always, is that it does not scale, the cost is absurd, the tech is improving slower than Lithium batteries, and this essentially takes the working parts of a fuel cell but makes the storage foolishly low.
There are also no end-of-life environmental challenges with a proton battery, since all components and materials can be rejuvenated, reused or recycled.”
The same is true of Lithium cells, but the problem historically has been that recycling is more expensive because the volume of cells being recycled is vanishingly small. The ability to recycle a product doesn’t determine whether or not it is recycled, which is a really unfortunate truth we have to face.
ClentThe oil industry is behind the the push for hydrogen.
They desperately need to replace fuel for fuel or they’ll cease to exist.
I spoke to a partner of a friend whose working on hydrogen cells and “low temp” (600c, though earlier versions were 800-1000c) cerium or Cesium yttrium catalyst electrolysers. The point of the electrolysis pathway is that you’re able to use excess energy from green sources (solar/hydro/nuclear) that we currently don’t have the infrastructure to store, to produce hydrogen for use in hydrogen cells or to be used as an alternative to fossil fuel derived hydrogen in metallurgical processes (steel making etc)
The theory of excess energy is nonsense. Especially when it comes to solar, which you would optimize to use peak capacity at peak production times. Pumped hydro is vastly more efficient than electrolysis to produce hydrogen, and it doesn’t require us mining. Any precious metals.
Since the point of this research is to reduce the impact of mining, you would think that mining for the catalyst material would have been considered. Those metals are not readily found and bodies of water, for example.