Water is the ash of hydrogen combustion. The energy has already been released. These news stories keep telling a fairytale - that we're getting closer to some technology that will effectively convert water into gasoline.
Hydrogen from water is a potentially useful energy storage medium, but it's not a free energy source.
Correct, but it appears that this process requires (lots of) heat, and that can be obtained from solar furnaces. If this works then we can use a solar furnace and directly create hydrogen gas, missing out all the efficiency-sapping intermediate stages and going straight to a storable fuel.
Nor is transporting. Both of which explaining why hydrogen fuel cell technology is now feasible for mid-range electrical generation (Bloom Box), but still generally DOA for vehicles.
That is: generation cost hasn't been the problem for a while. It's all about storage and transport. And marginally cheaper h2 generation isn't going to make hydrogen make more sense than electrical batteries.
Though I am curious to see how well a setup of this technology driving H2 separation and feeding a fuel cell stacks up against a more traditional steam turbine.
Unlike most gasses, hydrogen gas flowing through leak warms up, and the low ignition energy means this can be enough to start a fire, and hydrogen flames are invisible.
I'm not a chemical engineer, but I would assume that methane infrastructure cannot simple be re-used for hydrogen without significant changes.
Hydrogen from water is a potentially useful energy storage medium, but it's not a free energy source.