this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
35 points (100.0% liked)

Hydrogen

667 readers
3 users here now

A community about hydrogen and its use as a way to fight climate change.

Rules

This community has been migrated from:
fedia.io/m/hydrogen
fedia.io/m/hydrogen@kbin.social(Original server is defunct)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

A hydrogen engine using an argon-based cycle reaches more than 60 percent efficiency while operating emission-free.

top 11 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] SolacefromSilence@fedia.io 5 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

This seems like a dead end, why choose this over electric?

[–] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This may be an option for emissions free vehicles that don’t have the space or payload for a big heavy battery. It could also be used for high torque applications where an electric motor and its battery would be very expensive and heavy, as stated in the article.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 2 weeks ago
[–] ptc075@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Think of the Hydrogen part as being more like the battery. For example, imagine you're running a solar power plant, but you're making more power than your town needs. You can use the extra electricity to make Hydrogen on the sunny days, and then use that Hydrogen to make power on the cloudy days. You can also do this with normal power plants to account for the spikes in energy demands over the day (folks use more power during the day than they do at night, for example).

When it comes to vehicles, we want to store energy in a way that's lightweight & portable. Compared to the old lead-acid batteries, Hydrogen make sense on paper. Not so sure they stack up against all the new battery types that are coming out now though. But that's where the race is - figuring out which system is going to 'win' for the vehicles of the future. To me, that's the interesting part here - most Hydrogen cars use a fuelcell to generate electricity, and use an electric motor to spin the wheels. This seems to be more like a traditional gasoline engine, but driven by Hydrogen.

[–] Hypx@piefed.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

Most of the new battery types have very low energy density. Which is why hydrogen (and e-fuels) continue to make sense.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Portable energy Independence for countries that have neither oil nor batteries. Domestically

[–] Baggie@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

Something to do with all the water when the oceans start rising.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 2 weeks ago

Well,

Unless you're doing some extreme fission reaction I can garuntee you there's emissions. It's just water so nothing harmful.

[–] kahjtheundedicated@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Odd the article doesn’t really say what engine architecture this is based on. I assume they’re talking about an internal combustion piston engine? If so 60% is extraordinary. Though the exhaust recapture and reprocessing sounds quite complicated

[–] Hypx@piefed.social 2 points 2 weeks ago

It's an internal combustion engine using argon as a working fluid.

[–] darthsundhaft@piefed.social 2 points 2 weeks ago

I would post a GIF from That 70s show but the actor has been found guilty of some very seriously bad stuff, but otherwise would have.