Hydrogen Power Questions ** found info on another forum

I wonder what the cost-ratio of transporting the zinc and zinc-oxide back and forth versus just building electric-generation stations and transmitting the resultant electricity would be?

Your comment on fresh water is quite right, especially for we in the south west;_0

 

To answer that question, you would have to consider the energy use throughout the entire process, not just the transportation.

Using solar heat to produce hydrogen via zinc may well be more efficient than using solar heat to produce hydrogen via electricity and electrolysis.

For the zinc method, given x amount of solar energy:

n1% of the energy is lost during vaporization of zinc oxide due to heat radiated into the atmosphere around the vaporization chamber.

n2% of the energy is lost by radiation when the gaseous zinc is condensed into zinc powder.

n3% of the energy is lost by transportation of the zinc and the zinc oxide to and from the hydrogen production plant.

For the electricity/electrolysis method, given x amount of solar energy:

n1% of the energy is lost by radiation around the vaporization chamber when water is turned into steam.

n2% of the energy is lost when the steam turns the turbines to generate electricty.

n3% of the energy is lost by radiation when the remaining steam is condensed back into water.

n4% of the energy is lost by the power grid when the electricity is transmitted to the hydrogen production plant.

n5% of the engery is lost during the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen.

I have no idea what all these numbers would add up to, but it may very well be that the zinc method is more efficient than the electrolysis method, even though the cost of transporting the zinc would be higher than the cost of transmitting the electricity.

That's for the engineers to figure out.