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posted by janrinok on Tuesday May 23 2023, @12:49PM   Printer-friendly

A new paper proposes solid air as a medium for recycling cold energy across the hydrogen liquefaction supply chain:

The world is undergoing an energy transition to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war have further increased the interest of Europe and Western countries to invest in the hydrogen economy as an alternative to fossil fuels. Hydrogen can significantly reduce geopolitical risks if the diversity of future hydrogen energy suppliers is increased.

Hydrogen is a particularly challenging product to transport safely. One option is to liquefy hydrogen, which requires cooling to 20 Kelvin (-253 °C). This is an expensive process and requires around 30% of the energy stored within the hydrogen.

A pioneering approach developed by IIASA researchers and colleagues proposes solid air (nitrogen or oxygen) as a medium for recycling cooling energy across the hydrogen liquefaction supply chain. At standard temperature and pressure, air is a gas, but under certain conditions, it can become a liquid or solid. Solid Air Hydrogen Liquefaction (SAHL) consists of storing the cooling energy from the regasification of hydrogen, by solidifying air, and transporting the solid air back to where the hydrogen was liquefied. The solid air is then used to reduce the energy consumption for liquefying hydrogen. The process is divided into four main steps: hydrogen regasification, solid air transportation, hydrogen liquefaction, and liquid hydrogen transportation.

[...] In their paper, the authors also address the ongoing debate in industry and academia to find the best alternative to transport hydrogen by sea:

"Compared to ammonia or methanol, liquefied hydrogen is the best option for several reasons. Transporting hydrogen with ammonia and other molecules would require around 30% of the energy transported to extract the hydrogen. The hydrogen is liquefied where electricity is cheap. Also, SAHL can lower energy consumption for hydrogen liquefaction by 25 to 50%," Hunt concludes.

Journal Reference:
Hunt, J., Montanari, P., Hummes D., et al. (2023). Solid air hydrogen liquefaction, the missing link of the hydrogen economy. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.03.405


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by inertnet on Tuesday May 23 2023, @01:44PM (4 children)

    by inertnet (4071) on Tuesday May 23 2023, @01:44PM (#1307651) Journal

    to invest in the hydrogen economy as an alternative to fossil fuels

    Hydrogen is just an energy carrier, not an energy source.

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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday May 23 2023, @02:37PM

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Tuesday May 23 2023, @02:37PM (#1307676)

    Pff... You and your facts. Always getting in the way of truthiness and ill-informed journalism. Good thing AI will soon put an end to all that boring fact-checking, by virtue of the sheer unmanageable deluge of nonsense it will produce.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by hendrikboom on Tuesday May 23 2023, @02:41PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 23 2023, @02:41PM (#1307680) Homepage Journal

    Yes. Hydrogen is an energy carrier.
    But there are many situations where fossil fuels are used just because they are transportable.
    Example: much of the transportation industry.

  • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Wednesday May 24 2023, @09:03AM

    by Unixnut (5779) on Wednesday May 24 2023, @09:03AM (#1307858)

    > Hydrogen is just an energy carrier, not an energy source.

    Same applies to all the current hydrocarbons we use. Apart from radioactive energy, all other sources of energy on earth are nothing more than energy carriers, that originally got their energy from the sun.

    As for the article, in fact they could solve all their logistical headaches with Hydrogen if they just bound it with some carbon atoms, and would have an easy to store, transport and handle liquid at room temperature.

    However that apparently is too cheap, efficient and obvious for those at the top to contemplate.

  • (Score: 1) by leromarinvit on Wednesday May 24 2023, @11:56AM

    by leromarinvit (18669) on Wednesday May 24 2023, @11:56AM (#1307880)

    Given conservation of energy, is *anything* an energy source? It's always just a conversion of one form into another.

    However, assuming the colloquial definition of "energy source" as something you can dig up and use, hydrogen only isn't one until you find a place to mine it. Since astroid mining seems to be all the rage with technology futurists, how about mining the Sun? It has plenty of hydrogen available I hear!