HPQ Silicon Inc. (HPQFF)

[PieEconomics]

Scientists discussing HPQ now:

"...there's no claim to be exceeding the Faraday limit of electrolysis efficiency (76%) so I presume they haven't managed that. If you figure out the cost (in Hydrogen terms) of producing the Silicon from Quartz, and then refining it enough to be able to produce Silicon PVs, and making the PVs, it's somewhat debatable as to whether you'd have any energy left over from producing the solar panels to drive the system.

"The sad fact is that you lose at least 25% of your input energy if you use it to produce Hydrogen, and then if you want electricity from that Hydrogen the fuel cells are only around 60% efficient at the moment and maybe fairly close to the maximum efficiency we're going to get. There are some tweaks we can do on the processes, such as using heat energy to substitute some electrical energy with plasma electrolysis, but the underlying inefficiency doesn't really change much. The heat could be concentrated solar, but that also means building mirrors that track the Sun. Each proposed solution has a downside in extra costs.

"At the moment, the ambition to attain a cost of "green" Hydrogen of around $1 per kilo really depends on buying the PVs from China, who produce their panels a lot cheaper because they don't pay their workers that much and because they use high-quality coal to reduce the Quartz to Silicon, and use coal-fired electricity in the subsequent refining. Thus if you start digging into the background here you find that the total emissions reduction is very much less than the headlines would suggest.

"Still, it will attract subsidies, so they may make a profit for a while. It's somewhat unlikely that they will achieve that $1 per kilo target without subsidies - just too much kit needed and too much engineering involved. Given the ability of Hydrogen to leak through any containment and to find the smallest leaks in joints, if there is insufficient maintenance we can expect the odd explosion now and again."

Source: Today's Tech News: Notable or Not?

https://todays-tech-news-notable-or-not.blogspot.com/2021/08/hpq-launches-revolutionary-and.html