“Nothing, except nuclear, can beat hydrocarbons.”
Then why do the use hydrogen on space rockets instead of hydrocarbons?
I know we can’t store hydrogen, like we do hydrocarbons. There is no medium that we can use to hold hydrogen. If you were to fill up a hydrogen car and go on vacay, when you’d get back you’d have an empty car. Whereas, they probably rocket into space asap after fueling the tanks.
Hydrogen also makes metals brittle over time. You’d eventually end up with fuel tanks that you could tear apart with your bare hands.
It it says in this article that they don’t use hydrogen to lift rockets on the ground, but only to provide continuing thrust when it’s in the air. The reason being is because there is less thrust power in hydrogen than rocket propellant.
To me, it sounds like one of the drawbacks of hydrogen is that our cars might lack in thrust.
https://headedforspace.com/using-liquid-hydrogen-as-rocket-fuel/