Bill Gates-Led Fund Backs Startup With Cheaper Way to Move Hydrogen

A Bill Gates-led fund is backing a startup that’s promising to make hydrogen less expensive to transport. A hydrogen molecule is tiny. So tiny, in fact, that trying to store and transport it via existing tanks and pipes can end up causing cracks in steel. Transporting hydrogen currently could cost as much as three times the cost of its production, so urgent technological solutions are needed. While there are existing methods to store and transport hydrogen - trapped within ammonia (NH₃) or methanol (CH₃OH) - they can be prohibitively expensive. There are currently projects being developed in countries like Australia that have plenty of space for solar and wind farms where hydrogen is produced, converted to ammonia, moved on ships, and then hydrogen is recovered by undoing the chemical reaction. H2SITE (click here) the startup funded by Bill Gates offers to provide that service at a fraction of a cost, if its technology can scale. Click to read more, article by Bloomberg.