Environment & Energy

This is because electricity is already thermodynamically degraded.

It is possible, the Chinese are apparently piloting this, to make nuclear thermochemical hydrogen for industrial use, but hydrogen itself, even under these more efficient processes is thermodynamically degraded, no matter how many morons from the fossil fuel industry post slick ads here with "green hydrogen" bullshit to greenwash fossil fuels. That would make hydrogen relatively cleaner, but it will still involve energy losses.

What the fuck is the source of all this hydrogen mysticism? How many decades to we have to listen to this chanting nonsense? The gas has terrible physical properties, an exceedingly low critical temperature, the third lowest of any gas, with only ⁴ being lower He ³He, has a positive Joule Thompson coefficient, low explosive limits, incompatibility with many metals, and extremely low viscosity. What is it exactly? That we all learn in high school that the product of hydrogen combustion is water? The combustion product of methane is water as well (along with carbon dioxide).

It's a useful captive intermediate to make ammonia and methanol, but it isn't green and won't ever be green, as the laws of thermodynamics are inviolable.