Methane and natural gas have similar properties but can be created or sourced in different ways. There are even techniques for converting gasoline, waste wood, sewage and garbage dumps to produce hydrogen - different sources of methane or methane-like gasses.
Apollo 13 was decades past and technology continues to progress. New catalysts that produce hydrogen more efficiently and are more resistant to structural change are already here. Here is one example:
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An active phase of a catalyst based on amorphous iridium hydroxide exhibited efficiency 150 times that of its original perovskite structure and close to three orders of magnitude better than the common commercial catalyst, iridium oxide."
""We found at least two groups of materials that undergo irreversible changes that turned out to be significantly better catalysts for hydrogen production," Feng said. "This can help us produce hydrogen at $2 per kilogram and eventually $1 per kilogram. That's less expensive than the polluting process in current industries and will help achieve the United States' goal of zero emissions by 2030.""
"Feng notes that the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office has established benchmarks of technologies that can produce clean hydrogen at $2 per kilogram by 2025 and $1 per kilogram by 2030 as part of the Hydrogen Energy Earthshot target of cutting the cost of clean hydrogen by 80%, from $5 to $1 per kilogram, in one decade."
New research into the design of catalysts has shown that hydrogen can be cleanly produced with much greater efficiency and at a lower cost than is possible with current commercially available catalysts.
www.sciencedaily.com
Hydrogen technology and investments are moving forward given the many advantages. Hydrogen can power land, sea and air vehicles, and also back-up electrical grids, provide long-term energy storage for wind and solar (something batteries can't do) and down the road may even help to bake cookies and heat homes.
Company's RuggedCellTM electrolyser ramps from 0 to 50,000 amperes in under 10 seconds, showing it can support the energy transition to renewables in the drive to net-zero emissionsTORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / December 8, 2021 / Hydrogen Optimized, a subsidiary of Key DH Technologies Inc., today...
energycentral.com
De Havilland Canada has agreed to purchase 50 hydrogen-electric motors from ZeroAvia, which will be used to power its aircraft in the coming years
www.autoevolution.com