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Dan S.'s avatar

I'm a petroleum engineer and have worked in Midland (Permian Basin) for 26 years. We have been using CO2 injection into oil reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) since the 1970's. In the early 2000's, I can remember meetings and discussions around using methane to generate hydrogen to power the (then) new fuel cell technology for transportation. This is before the shale boom, and at the time the US was importing more and more crude as well as natural gas. It only made sense if nuclear power was used as the energy source to create the hydrogen, and the resulting CO2 byproduct was injected into oil reservoirs to increase oil production. The idea didn't gain much traction since the net energy loss in the process would guarantee bankrupting any company that tried it. Plus, the hydrogen molecule is so small that it will permeate most materials including steel, so an entire new delivery system would be required to get it to market. Leaking hydrogen might be an issue (Hindenburg?).

Now, thanks to green subsidies, the idea has returned. Billions will be spent studying the idea, and I bet it will never gain traction for the same reasons.

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Mel Larson's avatar

Hydrogen has a number issues well beyond the production aspect. There is zero infrastructure logistics distribution system, then consumers aren't there at all. Modular nuclear in theory solves this issue however, thanks to the Hillary, Russia is the main source of enriched fuel for nuclear plants. Need to move DC meetings into the heartland, and them make each one of them work a farm job for 2 yrs, forget law school and trying something useful like engineering where physics and thermo have to be honored.

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