Shell permanently closes Hydrogen filling stations in CA

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20 points·jnsaff2··9 comments

Many (25) years ago at a conference on driving-directions technology. someone remarked that the whole Hydrogen Economy whas being used as an R&D scam to forestall real progress reducing fossil fuels.

Which doesn't mean it isn't inherently a good idea.

I keep hearing the excuse for hydrogen being things like freight trucks that need hundreds of kilometres of range.

It seems that for a fraction of the cost of building hydrogen, they could outfit them with pantographs and run trolley wire over major highways; suddenly, you only need 100km of battery when you get on and off the freeway instead of 800 for a day's travels.

> suddenly, you only need 100km of battery when you get on and off the freeway

Except that, because of the battery, your truck is too heavy and it is not allowed to use those roads.

Good luck to Mirai owners.

Is this a PR campaign against hydrogen? Maybe Shell isn’t the best prosyletizer of alternatives to their gigantic oil business.

This is reality setting in. The stations were an attempt to keep using fossil fuels long term (reforming methane into hydrogen). The PR is dying in the face of the global EV ramp.

https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-production-na...

> Natural gas reforming is an advanced and mature production process that builds upon the existing natural gas pipeline delivery infrastructure. Today, 95% of the hydrogen produced in the United States is made by natural gas reforming in large central plants. This is an important technology pathway for near-term hydrogen production.

TLDR EVs won.

> TLDR EVs won.

This year maybe. The economy is in a crysis, so only rich kids buy new cars.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-28/electric-...

Well that went well.

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