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Shell Is Immediately Closing All Of Its California Hydrogen Stations | The oil giant is one of the big players in hydrogen globally, but even it can't make its operations work here. (insideevs.com)

submitted 9 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Shell Is Immediately Closing All Of Its California Hydrogen Stations | The oil giant is one of the big players in hydrogen globally, but even it can't make its operations work here.::The oil giant is one of the big players in hydrogen globally, but even it can't make its operations work here. All seven of its California stations will close immediately.

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[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

I think the ideal sustainable chemical fuel would be propane generated through genetically engineered algae. Propane can easily be compressed into liquid and transported and it burns clean.

Have something like solar panels filled with photosynthetic algae producing propane that is constantly extracted as a gas. Once we have done the genetic engineering of a "steady state algae panel" it would be quite low tech to have these on your roof and store them to heat with in winter. Or use for specific large machines where batteries are not worth the embodied energy.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 7 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Algae is, at best, around 10% efficient at converting light into energy. You can use solar power to produce hydrogen at better efficiency than that, but even that's pretty poor. The best is to just use that electricity as it is, and second best is to put it in a battery.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think we will likely need hydrogen for situations where batteries are not reasonable.

An example would be remote logging operations where delivering power is likely a non-starter.

Granted, maybe we'll get to a point where a remote solar array could be installed ... or maybe we'll just stick with fossil fuels for that until technology gets better. However, it is a distinctly different situation from the 99% of individual use vehicles.

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 1 points 9 months ago

It's really only long range travel away from grids (like maybe autonomous trucks traveling through very large unpopulated areas, but not on rail or boat) where hydrogen has meaningful advantages due to energy density. Anywhere else there's something else which is comparable or better.

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