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Schrodinger againYou're dead or alive.
Schrodinger againYou're dead or alive.
700 bar sounds a hell of a lot. Normal SCUBA tanks are 230bar with 300bar as a heavier and less satisfactory alternative. You don't even get the expected extra 50% in a 300 bar tank as at the higher pressures gas becomes less compressible as it were. 700bar tanks would be extremely thick and heavy and it would cost a lot more (energy and money) to pump it up that high, as well as not getting as much extra as you'd think. Hydrogen is also somewhat problematic material reacting with steel and so on. You really don't want your 700bar tank going brittle !
There is Dinorwig Hydro etc ? And I've heard similar plans to have warehouses of weights that can be raised to the heights when it's windy or sunny and then spun down to produce electric when we need them ?
It's unlikely to leak though given it will mostly be empty due to the lack of places to actually fill up with Hydrogen...I wouldn't expect leakage to be an issue with this - apparently the Toyota Mirai has hydrogen leak detectors.
It's unlikely to leak though given it will mostly be empty due to the lack of places to actually fill up with Hydrogen...
There is Dinorwig Hydro etc ? And I've heard similar plans to have warehouses of weights that can be raised to the heights when it's windy or sunny and then spun down to produce electric when we need them ?
You're right of course but the biggest issue with hydrogen is I think the round cycle efficiency; compressing gas to 700bar takes a mahoosive* amount of power. I think I've seen figures quoted that the round cycle efficiency is only about 30% or something. So you need 3x the generation capacity with hydrogen vs batteries.
* Customary unit of measure. One mashoos = 1 kWhr/kg. Various figures around 6 mahoos are quoted online.
Dinorwig's total capacity is very small compared to winter energy usage.
Dinorwig capacity is quoted as 9 GWhr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station#:~:text=The scheme can supply a,9.1 GWh (33 TJ).
Annual UK electricity demand is 320TW, so a Dinorwig scale supply would only run the grid for 15 minutes.
Dinorwig is intended to balance usage a bit during the day, not to store energy between seasons.
Scaling up electricity storage is very, very difficult.
In the past I chose a diesel car because of the reduced CO2 emissions thinking I was doing "the right thing". There was no cost saving for me personally with the way my company car deal was structured, so if anything it was a slight sacrifice vs the more hooligan inclined petrol alternative. Anyhow the trend went against diesel subsequently for reasons of particulate pollution so it seem it was the wrong choice.
Carbon fibre rather than steel for the Mirai, and ~90kg weight for 5kg hydrogen, from Wiki:
High-pressure hydrogen tanks[edit]
View attachment 716440 The Mirai's high-pressure hydrogen tank and rechargeable battery pack on top
The Mirai has two hydrogen tanks with a three-layer structure made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic consisting of nylon 6 from Ube Industries[50] and other materials. The tanks are 122 litres (27 imp gal; 32 US gal) combined,[51] and store hydrogen at 70 MPa (10,000 psi). The tanks have a combined weight of 87.5 kg (193 lb),[45][42] and 5 kg (11 lb) capacity.
5kg hydrogen would presumably have similar calorific value as a couple of gallons of petrol, so nearly 90kg of carbon fibre to merely contain it seems bonkers, although if they put up with a bigger volume at 200bar I guess they could reduce the weight required
If your after helping with global CO2 then a diesel as it emits less, is better if your after helping local humans with breathing problems
I have a log burner and I use it occassionally at weekends when it's really cold in Winter (Oct-Feb). Rather than put the heating on for the whole house, it warms up the living room. I use seasoned wood and the burner is a fairly efficient model (rated at 77%), a Scan Andersen.
As an aside - I cycle to work 90% of the year rather than drive, a saving of £800 in fuel, and about 1.5 metric tonnes of C02.
I "liked" to think I was environmentally aware, but alas my stove is obviously a contradiction to that.
The problem is that a lot of people dry the wood out for a few weeks and then burn it - and this is the problem in urban areas