Comment on New fuel cell could enable electric aviation
Allero@lemmy.today 3 weeks agoIt takes energy to produce fuel. So what?
The point is, the efficiency of the entire process is much smaller compared to battery. Some estimates say that between electrolysis, transportation and fuel cell conversion it’s almost twice as bad in terms of energy efficiency, so you ultimately need double the energy for the same thing.
Sure, the math on planes is somewhat different as you need to account for battery weight. But really, it might still be more efficient to cram those batteries in. And as we know, it is still too bad to be usable.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
“The math is somewhat different” does not give adequate consideration to the importance.
That 777 I mentioned? The fuel weight on a maximum range flight is more than twice its remaining payload capacity. Fuel weight is the primary consideration you need to be looking at. The efficiency gains from charging batteries (relative to electrically-produced fuel) cannot justify the losses from their constant weight.
Allero@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Alright, that’s fair on your part.