Fueling Cars with Water: Korean Research Team Develops Tech to Mass Produce Hydrogen

[dumbcat]

6. I find that video slightly misleading.

Near the end of the video it says the facility pictured can produce up to 360 kG of H2 per day, implying that the energy to do so comes from the solar panels. ("the facility can produce&quot

Those look like about the size of 250 watt STC panels. Nine of them would produce 2.25kW. Given the annual average 5 hours of equivalent sun per day in the LA area, they could produce at most 11.25kWHr of energy per day. Current electrolyzer technology takes approx. 46 kWHr of electricity to produce 1 kG of H2. Therefore those solar panels have the capability to produce, at most, 0.25 kG of H2 per day. That is the equivalent of about a half gallon of gasoline. That's not going to get the bus very far.

The energy to produce the other 359.75 kG of H2 comes from the grid, and from whatever assortment of energy sources serves the LA area. That would require another 16,548.5 kWHr from the grid per day. At the average LA electricity cost of $0.21/kWHr that's $3310 per day. That $3310 will produce the equivalent of 497 gal of gasoline (at 33.41 kWHr per gal equivalent with the current electrolyzers) for a cost of $6.66/gal equiv. of gasoline. (And that doesn't include the amortization of the capital cost of the facility.)

So, it's cool. I like it. I would like to have one if someone else paid for the electricity. Someday it will probably be cost effective. But for now, I would buy gasoline at $4.25/gal.

I like math.

Anyone see any holes in my math? I got most of the energy and conversion factors at the DOE hydrogen fuel cell website, which I don't have handy right now.