New renewable fuel

[Dennywires]

interesting article

New Renewable Fuel Might be 3 Times More Powerful Than Gasoline

First there was coal, then oil became the most important fuel, and eventually natural gas started to dominate, but now a fourth and even more exciting fuel may be about to break onto the scene

finance.yahoo.com

 

[kschachn]

Yeah, more of the "hydrogen" nonsense but this time as part of an ammonia molecule. And cloaked in an absolutely worthless bait article.

It will never happen in the widespread vehicle industry, the thermodynamics of ammonia synthesis are unfavorable and it is very toxic when there is a spill or leak. No way, ever, that a vehicle fueled with ammonia (or worse multiple vehicles) will be parked in residential attached garages. Never. There's a valid and real reason ammonia is not used in residential refrigerators anymore.

 

[Dennywires]

sounds more like they want the hydrogen from the ammonia.

 

[kschachn]

sounds more like they want the hydrogen from the ammonia.

Well that's even worse then. Use an unfavorable thermodynamic process to generate ammonia and then decompose it for the hydrogen.

The basic problem with such schemes is that there isn't an ammonia (or hydrogen) mine or well. You have to synthesize it first, so you're always at a disadvantage to some hydrocarbon fuel that's just pumped out of the ground. Sure you have to refine those hydrocarbons but you can utilize them in that refining process. This yields a net gain of potential rather than starting off with a net loss.

 

[dadto2]

I wonder if it can become economically feasible to unlock hydrogen with electrolosis powered by a hydro or solar power source?

 

[kschachn]

I wonder if it can become economically feasible to unlock hydrogen with electrolysis powered by a hydro or solar power source?

Decomposing a stable oxide is about the worst you can do thermodynamically. It would be much better to start with methane.

 

[Kawiguy454]

I wonder if it can become economically feasible to unlock hydrogen with electrolosis powered by a hydro or solar power source?

Problem is you need a lot of other machines (Infrastructure) to store it on a large scale. The cost stack up to do so is ridiculous and a small leak can have explosive consequences.

A guy at work once was ready to buy an electrolysis can for his car. the idea was that you split the H2O and feed the Hydrogen into the engine for a nice boost. I asked him how much electricity would be used to run the device and where would it come from? I watched the light bulb come on AhHa moment he realized the electrical system would eat up more power than the device would create.