So, you assume that if they don't convert it to hydrogen, they will just vent it to the atmosphere instead? No.
Either way you want to look at it, hydrogen is not an alternative to reduce fossil fuel use. Instead it is simply a different way to drive fossil fuel use. It provides a way of using fossil fuels less efficiently; which just doesn't make sense for the intent.
If 95% of hydrogen comes from fossil fuel or is made using fossil fuel, that is not a successful alternative.
I think a lot of people could afford to switch to motorcycles instead of cars, and that would make a much more massive difference.
Well, if you have lived in a previous century, you would see methane released or burned up in the atmosphere - from refinery. That was a normal process, as they do not want or need methane for anything.
21st century use of methane is another story...
Back OT. Why would H2 be less efficient? I know some NGP cars with engines who produce more kW on NGP, then on gasoline. Engines, such as ICE can be optimised for combustion!
If we are talking about H2-cell car: again, that thing is better then a electric car. Weights less, needs less materials to be built & you do not carry around you tank always full (in weight).
OK, so 95% comes from grey & blue H2...so what? What is the alternative? What are you going to use that CH4 or coal for? Is there some other better solution you want to use CH4 & coal for? I can't think of any better then H2.
If you are a "green-leftard" you would say bicycles right now...but motorcycles?!
Yes, it works in some countries...not in all! Central & Northern Europe is a no for the reason of rainy days...South depends on a traffic culture: in Italy is great, but not so in France or Croatia. to use bikes.
Regarding the syngas...it's still expensive. Synthetics are difficult to make, they use processes that are...not environmentally nice (pyrolysis of organic matter produces some very scary gasses that tend to eat through many things), and at present the volume of production is insanely low without subsidies that will not appear when you can always point to a stalk of corn and state that for literal pennies on the dollar you can ferment that corn into ethanol for roughly the same fuel output and without having to go through anything substantive. This is why syngas hasn't caught on...especially when it's 3x more expensive than crude and at this point ethanol is actually being sold at $2.16 per gallon. That's in areas where the cost of gasoline is $2.86 per gallon. Scaling isn't the issue here...it's the standard NIMBY explanation, along with an unsustainable cost. Scaling is something that would become viable if your only concern was producing things within reasonable price differential of the current alternative...and that isn't really the current market.
I refer back to the previous statements on why ethanol is currently cost effective.
This isn't a thread about syngas or ethanol though, it's about hydrogen. Why it's failed, in relation to syngas and ethanol, is safety.
Please, don't call synthetic gasoline a "syngas". As syngas is a gas fluid, made after some processes like pyrolysis.
Synthetic gasoline is a liquid substitute for gasoline. While syngas is not a liquid, but a gas & not every syngas can be used in ICE.
I still see the "hydrogen cars fill faster" argument. I am guessing these people don't have a Mirai like my neighbor.
Every morning I wake up to a full charge, no time spent. Every other day he has to fill up. Normally a 30 minute drive/fill/drive, but sometimes there is a line or the nozzle freezes (common on rainy days). Overall he hates the time it takes to fill. The 10x price is not good either. Then there are the times the station will not fill him up. He could go every third day, but filling is just not that reliable.
When he had a free fuel card he would take trips in his Mirai. Every 250 miles or less he had to find a station, fill, then go find a place to eat. I plan my charging at eating places. The only time the Mirai is faster is if you cannonball it - pee in a bottle, take snacks and eat in the car.
Do not confuse the lack of tank stations for H2, which will get larger...with charging times, which are horrible on EVs.
You know, 20y ago, we joked about charging stations for you EV lovers...so we still drive ICE cars!
Call me old fashioned...but I do not care anymore how much my car spends...everybody who asks me, gets the same answer!
