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Comment by tersers | Hacker News Reader

Assuming hydrogen engines become viable, does hydrogen have any feasible distribution mechanism comparable to electricity? With the rollout of EVs, charging stations can be placed pretty much anywhere but we can’t say the same for hydrogen. Are we assuming existing gas stations can be converted or Will natural gas distribution improve to allow people to fill up at home?

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From what I Understand, hydrogen is fiendishly difficult to transmit.

It can be stored OK, but getting it from Point A, to Point B, is difficult, because of the small atoms. Couplings tend to leak like hell.

Yep, hydrogen is so small it can diffuse through most solids and find the tiniest of gaps, and it requires high pressure or cryo double walled storage. Very cool if it can be made to work though!

The distribution mechanism for electric vehicles isn't a solved problem either though: during holidays, with millions of people driving their cars on the highways, we're going to need really beefy charging stations with electric power supply comparable to small cities, and that means building lots of infrastructure that doesn't exist yet. This isn't a theoretical problem (we know exactly what to do), but is a serious practical one.

YouTube's Engineering Explained channel took a close look at the hydrogen engine Toyota recently unveiled and in doing so explained a lot of problems you can expect with hydrogen engines - including distribution and storage issues.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJjKwSF9gT8

This is the biggest argument for me why EVs are the superior technology.

Thinking further with renewable energies, heat pumps and more, soon we'd only need infrastructure for electricity and internet.

You can download water??

Moisture vaporators...

Only if you can speak bocce

Big cloud helps

Real programmers don’t need water.

Naturally, from the CLOUD :)

Petrol stations. There are a few available in the uk. Sadly i could only find one hybrid car for sale, a toyota mirai.

It’s basically the same idea as natural gas. Pressure is higher and you need to be more careful with material compatibility. But otherwise everything is the same in principle.

Ultimately, it’s pretty laughable to think that a society capable of making modern semiconductors cannot figure out basic material science. People who keep bringing these issues up are not debating in good faith.

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