Hydrogen Is One Answer to Climate Change. Getting It Is the Hard Part

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/business/hydrogen-climate-change.html


Source: By Stanley Reed and Jack Ewing, The New York Times. 


Excerpt: ...A consensus is forming among governments, environmentalists and energy companies that deep cuts in carbon emissions will require large amounts of a clean fuel like hydrogen. ...It could be used to power long-haul trucks and train and air travel. ...All told, more than 200 large-scale projects are underway to produce or transport hydrogen, comprising investments of more than $80 billion. Daimler and Volvo, the world’s largest truck makers, plan in a few years to begin mass producing long-haul electric trucks that run on devices called fuel cells that convert hydrogen to electricity. Water will be the trucks’ only emission. ...industries like oil refining use large quantities of so-called gray hydrogen that is mostly made by separating hydrogen from natural gas. And that process generates more greenhouse-gas emissions than burning diesel. ...less than 5 percent of the hydrogen produced today is emission-free, and that kind costs more than twice as much to make as the gray version — $5 per kilogram versus $1 to $2 per kilogram, according to Bernstein, a research firm. It is also more expensive than conventional fuels, like diesel.... 

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