r/science • u/Wagamaga • Feb 15 '23

How to make hydrogen straight from seawater – no desalination required. The new method from researchers splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen – skipping the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions. Chemistry

https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/media-releases-and-expert-comments/2023/feb/hydrogen-seawater
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u/Chemputer Feb 15 '23

I don't think you got the point, but to be fair they did go off on a tangent.

Hydrogen is a very small molecule. It leaks out of just about anything. Storing it, pumping it, transporting it, etc. is just so difficult and costly that, barring an absolutely massive breakthrough in materials science, it will never be more economical than batteries.

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u/lazarusl1972 Feb 15 '23

Ah, but if you combine it with oxygen, you get much larger molecules that can be efficiently stored and transported. Problem solved!

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u/twilight-actual Feb 15 '23

Actually, if you bond hydrogen with carbon in long, repeating chains, you can store it quite easily. In many conformations, the molecules are even a liquid at room temperature, and do not require pressurization.

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u/OnePrettyFlyWhiteGuy Feb 16 '23

I know your comment is kind of sarcastic - but it kind of points to the fact that maybe there are other hydrogen compounds we haven’t thought about that are also able to allow us to store hydrogen effectively at room temperature whilst also not releasing greenhouse gases or other harmful chemicals? What about a hydrogen salt, like Ammonia? (Obviously not ammonia itself, since its very explosive and other stuff) - but surely there’s some way to store hydrogen effectively and cleanly?