Aircraft retrofitted with hydrogen fuel cells could slash CO2 emissions from small planes — and potentially pave the way for hydrogen jets, new study shows.
The first hydrogen-powered planes are taking flight::undefined
I definitely think hydrogen and batteries solve different problems, and we’re going to need both. Batteries have lower energy waste when recharging, and can handle power fluctuations better, while hydrogen has a far higher energy density, and scales much better to large scale storage. In addition, hydrogen tanks don’t wear out the same way as batteries after many empty-full cycles.
This makes hydrogen very good for large scale applications, where the power requirements don’t fluctuate much.
Hydrogen has a whole host of problems of it’s own. The absolute lack of infrastrucure is a massive, massive, massive hurdle, but if you limit that infrastructure to just large scale applications (like airports) then it becomes much less of a problem. Still hydrogen storage is extremely tricky simply because the gas is so tiny. On an atomic level, it is hard to keep it contained. That seems trivial, but is really isn’t. But ultimately if hydrogen is just one part of a wider energy solution, then things can get worked out.
I definitely think hydrogen and batteries solve different problems, and we’re going to need both. Batteries have lower energy waste when recharging, and can handle power fluctuations better, while hydrogen has a far higher energy density, and scales much better to large scale storage. In addition, hydrogen tanks don’t wear out the same way as batteries after many empty-full cycles.
This makes hydrogen very good for large scale applications, where the power requirements don’t fluctuate much.
Hydrogen has a whole host of problems of it’s own. The absolute lack of infrastrucure is a massive, massive, massive hurdle, but if you limit that infrastructure to just large scale applications (like airports) then it becomes much less of a problem. Still hydrogen storage is extremely tricky simply because the gas is so tiny. On an atomic level, it is hard to keep it contained. That seems trivial, but is really isn’t. But ultimately if hydrogen is just one part of a wider energy solution, then things can get worked out.