The 10 Biggest WOWs from Day 4 of ABLC

9. Holy smoke, is producing hydrogen from ethanol the most electrically efficient way to do it?

According to this slide from SBI Bioenergy, highlighting its gölu process, turns out that ethanol is nearly twice as efficient as a pathway to hydrogen than starting from renewable electricity and splitting water. Now, that may not be a field-to-power line analysis, after all, it might take some power to generate ethanol in the first place. But, still. SBI makes the point that we should not reflexively assume that electrolysis is without question the best path forward. Making power from hydrogen that’s itself made from water splitting may well be more efficient than using diesel to generate electricity — but if we’re thinking about generating energy for use in, say, backup power supplies, cell towers, remote locations and so forth — low-carbon Bioethanol might well need a close look as the hydrogen carrier.