Hydrogen NO MORE !.

The Scottish Hydrogen Train project has finished and the vehicle has been decommissioned.
Video at;


DAH

 

I don't want to invent subtext here but the way it is rather unceremoniously being parted out suggests it wasn't an admirable success?

 

The Class 614 hydrogen project was a success.
The owners of the project want to move on with the technology and have dropped the prototype.

DAH

 

Well that is good news. I was watching an old Top Gear episode with the hydrogen Honda and was thinking about this.

 

We just need a cheap way of separating the H2 from the O.

 

...that uses less energy than can eventually be recovered from the hydrogen. That's a major problem. Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen takes more energy than is released when the hydrogen is later burnt in the presence of oxygen to reform into water. In chemistry you don't get anything for nothing. If there's spare energy available to split the water, why not use that energy to do the end job and cut out the middle man?

 

Because that energy (e.g. wind, sunlight, wave power) may require conversion to a form (?hydrogen) that is straightforward to store and carry around in an instantly readily usable form?

 

As well as the energy needed to split the hydrogen - presumably using 'green' electricity - there would also be a fair amount of energy needed to compress the hydrogen to liquid for storage and transport. Associated costs of compressors and pressure vessels. Some applications - such as use of propane/butane for soldering etc and melting 'tar' for roofing and road repairs would seem to me to be relatively easy to adapt. Larger scale - use for motive power source - seem somewhat more challenging. Good that the people are looking at the possibilities of course!
(edit, missing word.....)

 

Most of those arguments are not exclusive to hydrogen, of course, if one looks at the wider picture - even coal takes energy to dig and lift it from the ground, oil has to be refined to make it usable, and petroleum derived gases often require liquefaction for storage and distribution. Hydrogen powered cars have been around for years now, its just the distribution system hasn't been seriously started on yet

 

Pity then that last year Shell removed all its hydrogen fuelling points...

 

At the rate that battery technology seems to be advancing it could be that hydrogen has missed the bus (in a manner of speaking).
Pat

 

I suspect that there's a place for both, and that a new generation of hydrogen fuelling points will emerge. There's no denying that it is harder stuff to deal with than conventional hydrocarbons and the associated technology will evolve.

 

I just worry we're doing another VHS vs. Betamax here - the technically inferior solution winning out by virtue of numbers.

 

Just like 4ft 8.5in v 7ft

 

Except that it’s far from clear that hydrogen is a better option.


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My immediate issue with EVs is their excess weight. The new BMW i7 is a whopping 2.7 tons - 50% more than what I consider to be BMW's masterpiece 7-series, the E32 (1987-1994). There's a lot of dead weight being hauled around there.

That weight cannot be good for road infrastructure.

However, getting back on track - where are the battery "Derby Lightweights" that were built for Scotland, and are they in operational order? SC79998 and SC79999, I think?

 

I’m not suggesting that they’re perfect, merely that hydrogen may not be ideal.


As for the unit, it’s back on the Ballater branch but unable to work itself - see http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=2076


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