Comment on TIL the cost of transporting energy around
gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 1 week ago Hydrogen is difficult to work with, massive compression or cryogenic temperatures. Metal embrittlement is a long term concern.
that’s hearsay. there’s lots of studies about hydrogen pipeline / storage feasibility, such as the ones i’ve linked above. pls stop spreading misinformation.
No it isn’t.
Oil can be pumped at atmospheric pressure and temperature, it is a little easier to warm it a bit, but not a hard requirement. This is easy to work with.
Electricity is easy to work with, it will stay in the wires and can be switched on and off in milliseconds.
To work with hydrogen, you have to either compress it a lot, or liquefy it. Both have significant challenges.
For example I was working on a hydrogen pilot project, we were using 700 bar compressed hydrogen as the storage mechanism. Getting the compressed gas out of storage was always a pain in the arse, valves would freeze open causing control problems. Perhaps physically larger valving wouldn’t have this problem, but the cooling potential of expanding 700bar gas back to atmosphere is significant. Compressed hydrogen is an explosion risk independent of oxidiser, so you have a double explosion risk, first the compression explosion then the chemical reaction in atmosphere of a spark (likely) is generated by the first. There are a bunch of other issues with it, but these are major ones.
Cryogenic hydrogen has it’s own I issues. I’m not as familiar with it.
Saying hydrogen isn’t difficult to work with is just your lack of experience. Difficult is just engineering challenges, but hydrogen has some unique issues that other options don’t.