According to this US Department of Energy website: “Currently, most hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, specifically natural gas.”
Trains can be very fuel efficient when compared to how much they can haul. So naturally I would like to see this happen, but I also want to see more effort in moving away from fossil fuels in every place it is possible. The article is paywalled so I could not read it. I’m assuming the hydrogen for this project is from traditional hydrogen sources? That is problematic for me.
It’s also problematic if hydrogen is extracted from fresh water because we may need to use that for drinking water. Sea water is even more problematic when you try to figure out what to do with the extracted salt and other minerals. Dumping the salt back in the ocean seems right at first, but doing that even for a couple of days will kill aquatic life in the area near the outlet. Do it on a large scale for months or years and entire ecosystems will collapse for miles in every direction.
If this push for hydrogen trains is what I expect and really meant to allow the petroleum companies to continue polluting the atmosphere and get rich(er) doing it? I’ll pass.
Caltrans hopes to obtain all the hydrogen for its trains from zero-emissions sources by 2030—a goal bolstered by a draft clean-hydrogen rule issued by the Biden administration in 2023.
According to this US Department of Energy website: “Currently, most hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, specifically natural gas.”
Trains can be very fuel efficient when compared to how much they can haul. So naturally I would like to see this happen, but I also want to see more effort in moving away from fossil fuels in every place it is possible. The article is paywalled so I could not read it. I’m assuming the hydrogen for this project is from traditional hydrogen sources? That is problematic for me.
It’s also problematic if hydrogen is extracted from fresh water because we may need to use that for drinking water. Sea water is even more problematic when you try to figure out what to do with the extracted salt and other minerals. Dumping the salt back in the ocean seems right at first, but doing that even for a couple of days will kill aquatic life in the area near the outlet. Do it on a large scale for months or years and entire ecosystems will collapse for miles in every direction.
If this push for hydrogen trains is what I expect and really meant to allow the petroleum companies to continue polluting the atmosphere and get rich(er) doing it? I’ll pass.
Archived version: https://archive.ph/gsMJX
It should be all green by 2030.
https://rmi.org/hydrogen-reality-check-distilling-green-hydrogens-water-consumption/
You seriously overestimate the amount of water required to make hydrogen.
Perhaps. And maybe using water as a fuel source is not as big of a deal as I think it will be.
I sincerely hope you are correct.
This is something that really annoys me.
You’re not using water as a fuel source, water is a byproduct of the process.