Posted By: TrimIt is supposed to be easy to filter hydrogen from methane so why can't customers who want to just buy hydrogen?
Not exactly easy, but consider the volumetric energy. 0.01 MJ/L at 1 atm for hydrogen vs. 0.03 MJ/L at 1 atm for methane.
Mass-wise, hydrogen outclasses just about any other conventional fuel, but that's primarily because of the low mass of hydrogen.
Okay, suppose we compress and refrigerate both hydrogen and methane to liquid form (and it's pretty energy-intensive to make liquid hydrogen). Per liter, H₂ ~= 10 MJ; liquid methane ~= 22.2 MJ.
Volumetrically, methane is the winner, wrt energy density.