eltonioni wrote:
.... I'd guess that you and I have adequate private off-road home parking for our vehicles but a quarter of people in the UK live in terraces, another quarter in flats, a third in council / HA homes, a fifth in privately rented homes. There was no extra provision for any of them in the petrol / diesel ban so its not too hard to read between the lines that industry is expected to deal with it and it's aa stretch to expect indistry to bin all that existing infrastructure for delivering fuel to a vehicle. It already works, is convenient and needs regular upgrading anyway. Switching out to hydrogen is a cinch compared to finding somebody to pay for wiring up superchargers to every home / lampost / car park / inconvenient place in the country. I think we might still get to play with ICE Porsches in the future too ...
I might be missing something, so I'd be happy to be corrected, but isn't there a requirement for very high pressures to store and move liquid hydrogen, I'm sure I've seen pressures of anything from 5,000 to 10,000 psi (350-700bar) mentioned. Although the locations already exist for fuelling outlets, handing a liquid at 5,000 psi is not currently catered for. Sure, there is a nationwide network of underground pipework for liquid fuels that already exists but the typical working pressure is less than 150 psi, which is probably not suitable for liquid hydrogen. I can see hydrogen working from local points of manufacture, e.g. generating hydrogen at depots for trains. I think making hydrogen work is more about the cost of supply infrastructure, the benefits of fuel cell technology, as used in cars, doesn't seem to be in question.