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Re:DARPA wants to bypass the thermal middleman in nuclear po... by g15jv2dp on Saturday August 10, 2024 @05:51AM (#41208407)
And then what do you do with the hydrogen? Unless you plan on fueling your spaceship with it, you must burn it off to harvest the thermal energy... I'm sure you see the issue here.
Re:DARPA wants to bypass the thermal middleman in nuclear po... by defrost on Saturday August 10, 2024 @06:02AM (#41208447)
Ammonia, Methanol, etc - Fertilisers and fuels for marine shipping in addition to being transportable "energy" that's less slippery than hydrogen and can travle further than an HVDC transmission line "extension cord".

Currently green hydrogen plants are expanding and ammonia | methanol marine fuel ships have been built and trialed - there are contracts signed and in the works to both build a 4,000 km HVDC "suncable" and to ship hydogen products longer distance.

Re:DARPA wants to bypass the thermal middleman in nuclear po... by analog31 on Saturday August 10, 2024 @09:46PM (#41213465)
You pipe it somewhere and burn it, in a heater, or an engine, or a smaller generator, the way natural gas is used today. Or fill a tank with it and power a vehicle.

However, I appreciate the point made about hydrogen escaping and causing embrittlement of materials.

Re:DARPA wants to bypass the thermal middleman in nuclear po... by g15jv2dp on Sunday August 11, 2024 @01:18AM (#41214135)
You want to use thermal energy to make hydrogen, then burn that hydrogen to make thermal energy, possibly even to harvest that thermal energy to produce electricity...
Re:DARPA wants to bypass the thermal middleman in nuclear po... by analog31 on Sunday August 11, 2024 @09:59AM (#41216201)
The idea is that nuclear fission produces thermal energy, the production of hydrogen provides a means of storing and transporting that energy to its point of use. It might be useful to draw a diagram.

Electricity is really just another means to the same end. You can't use all of the energy generated by a power plant, at the plant site, so you transport the energy to places where it's needed.