You take renewable energy and make a high density gas. Typically you make hydrogen (easy) then methane. Methane, unlike hydrogen, is highly dense and can be sent with existing gas pipelines.

It's a way to store and trsnsport enormous excess energy usage thats far better than electrical butteries.

It's already in use, but further research would only make it more efficient.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's awesome, I don't think I have heard of that. I'm going to look into that for sure, thanks for the quick explanation.

That reminds me of that idea of a solar panel farm that uses its excess energy to lift a boulder during the day and then during the night the boulder falls and turns alternators that create electricity from the weight of the boulder slowly falling back down overnight

[–] itchy_lizard@feddit.it 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes but I think methane is far more practical

Google "synthetic methane"

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah, I have. Yes, I see what you mean. That is a useful technology.

Is that specific field still very prototypical? I can't find any real-world applications yet.

Can it scale or has it only been experimented within laboratory settings so far?

Oh wait, Japan of course, what's going through with trials. Cool

[–] itchy_lizard@feddit.it 1 points 1 year ago

There's a huge plant in California and France. theres a lot.

[–] eleitl@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All natgas infra can deal with hydrogen blends and some with pure hydrogen. All new infrastructure should be made hydrogen-proof.

Another great option is synfuels like methanol which are also an universal chemistry feedstock.

[–] itchy_lizard@feddit.it 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hydrogen is the least dense fuel possible. And it fucks up tanks (with pitting) so it has to be replaced often.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yup, "hydrogen-proof infrastructure" doesn't exist. I like the idea of hydrogen, but it's just not a nice gas to work with and transport.

[–] itchy_lizard@feddit.it 1 points 1 year ago

Yep, that's why you convert it to methane