Comment on New fuel cell could enable electric aviation

Allero@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

Is it really cheaper and more practical to produce sodium vs hydrogen?

The typical issue with fuel cells is not energy density, it is the fact that you need to waste a lot of energy to regenerate and transport the fuel. For example, if you take a classic hydrogen option, you can either get it from natural gas (which is not sustainable/eco-friendly) or from water (which is fully sustainable as you get a closed cycle, but comes with additional energy losses on electrolysis, transportation and usage).

So, overall, you’ll need to spend much more energy (= both recurring and upfront costs) compared to running battery-powered transportation if you want to make it a close cycle similar to batteries.

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