Alstom Germany to commercialize diesel-alternative hydrogen trains in the summer

Alstom announced on the 8th that hydrogen trains to replace diesel trains in Germany will be commercialized in summer and are spreading to Europe.

France's Alstom has announced the construction of the first all-hydrogen fueled passenger train line with 14 Coradia iLint vehicles with fuel cell propulsion in Bremerboud, Lower Saxony, Germany, replacing the 15 diesel-powered trains currently operating on the line from summer.

Reuters reported on the same day that experts in this regard said, “Hydrogen offers a viable, emission-free, quiet alternative that can replace diesel-powered railway locomotives where full electrification is difficult or too expensive.”

Alstom explained that 1 kg of hydrogen replaces about 4.5 liters of diesel fuel, and the hydrogen train is supplied with hydrogen fuel every day from the Linde hydrogen filling station, equipped with a hydrogen tank capable of cruising at a speed of 1,000 km and a top speed of 140 km/h.

“As pioneers of hydrogen-powered trains, we are building the foundation for the industry of the future,” said Alstom Vice President Brahim Regional Rail Vehicle Platform. It represents a historic step towards sustainable mobility," he told Reuters.

Alstom started commercial hydrogen train service in Germany in 2018, and in Berlin in 2016, it introduced its hydrogen locomotive, the Corradia iLint, for the first time at InnoTrans 2016.

Alstom signed contracts with two German consortiums, Linde and Infraserv, and entered into active business-sharing agreements with the Italian train Snam and the French train company Engie consortium to build infrastructure for the production, transportation and management of hydrogen charging stations.

Alstom told Reuters, “Hydrogen vehicles have become the better business case in nearly 15 years, despite lower maintenance costs and hydrogen trains requiring a 30% higher investment than diesel.” “For applications where it has to fit and long range is important, hydrogen is the best solution.”

Regarding the refueling infrastructure that is key to hydrogen transportation, Linde, as part of the Bremervorde project, has launched the world's first hydrogen filling system for passenger trains with a 64,500 bar high-pressure storage tank and a hydrogen capacity of approximately 1,600 kg per day.

Linde operates the world's first network of high-purity hydrogen storage caverns and pipelines spanning nearly 1,000 km, and has installed 200 hydrogen filling stations and more than 80 hydrogen electrolysis plants worldwide.

The German Bremervorde train runs along a single 123km track, so a single refueling station does not transport hydrogen to multiple locations, making it the fastest commercially available.

"It's almost like a back-to-base setup. You build one big station and fuel the trains at one place, so there's no need to build multiple fueling stations," said Linde David Burns, Vice President of Clean Energy, Germany. "Europe's largest petrol station "We see this as a good model for similar suburban rail networks going forward," he told Reuters.

"In the US, [freight trains] tend to have multiple engines, so it's going to be a lot bigger in terms of hydrogen demand to travel long distances and carry enough hydrogen to carry 50 to 100 rail cars," he said. “We are looking at potential solutions for this and for example we need to see liquid hydrogen on board rather than gaseous. Liquefaction will be key to our distribution network going forward, based on one truck that will deliver 5 tons of liquid hydrogen at a time. will be," he said.

“In Europe, many suburban commuter train networks run on diesel, making them good candidates for a switch to hydrogen, a cheaper option than electrification,” Reuters predicted.

"Liquid hydrogen has been used by NASA for space development as a fuel for rocket applications for many years, and given its high energy density, it can be used to optimize the supply chain as demand grows," Reuters said of long-haul US diesel freight trains. there is,” he said.

On November 22 last year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry unveiled a project to produce hydrogen by water electrolysis with American companies in Texas and Louisiana, USA, and make synthetic LNG from methane, which combines CO2 and produced hydrogen, and transport it to Japan.

The synthetic LNG project first disclosed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is the American Cameron LNG project invested by Mitsubishi. It is a hydrogen fuel business that transports hydrogen production from synthetic methane to Japan using marine LNG carriers as a liquefaction facility. <Refer to ‘Operation’ of synthetic LNG, ‘producing Co2-coupled methane by making hydrogen with water’ in Japan and the United States, November 23, 2022>

 

More than four-fifths of diesel (diesel) consumption in the US are trucking companies (67%), railroads (6%), marine bunkers (3%), industrial users (3%) and construction (4%).

US consumption, which accounts for the absolute share of global diesel consumption, is closely related to the acceleration and deceleration of manufacturing and cargo cycles. During the three months between August and October of last year, the amount of diesel supplied to the US market averaged 4 million per day. Barrels are on par with the same period in 2021, but as manufacturing activity declines, diesel supply growth has gradually slowed since the second quarter of 2021 and is currently stagnant, with diesel consumption likely to decline as manufacturing slowdown intensifies over the next six months, Reuters said.

On December 27 last year, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korea announced the successful test of a hydrogen electric train by a hybrid power system (1.2 MW) based on a hydrogen fuel cell and a secondary battery.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that a project cost of 25.7 billion won (22 billion won from the government) was invested in the development of hydrogen electric trains for five years from 2018.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs then announced that it would prepare a plan for building a hydrogen charging station exclusively for railroad vehicles and technical standards (draft) for the charging facilities required for hydrogen charging.