>>63891859
>Which is a great thing since we might actually get back big engines but now they produce "zero" pollution.
hydrogen is actually more like a chemical battery, since its used to produce electricity to generate power rather than burned
its energy density is greater than normal batteries because it can use atmospheric oxygen as its oxidizer rather than carrying its own
the main downside is that its a one-way process, so any hydrogen that is produced has to be produced with clean energy itself
>>63892741
the thing is that if your powerplant can be nuclear, solar, wind, or hydro
a combustion engine can only ever be petrol
but even if your power comes from coal, the dirtiest energy supply, you still come out a net benefit compared to burning oil, it takes longer to payback the pollution incurred when producing the battery, but you still get there eventually
the simple answer is simply economy of scale, 1000 small engines all burning fuel is less efficient than 1 big engine (a power plant) that then transfers that power to batteries
electric motors themselves compound on that efficiency because they themselves are more efficient at converting power to work than combustion
