World's first zero-emission hydrogen passenger train to go into service in Germany

[nationalize the fed]

Germany is set to host the world's first zero-emission, hydrogen passenger train when it gets into gear next year.

The Local.de : 20 Sep 2016

The hydrogen, or hydrail, train is set to run on the Buxtehude-Bremervörde-Bremerhaven-Cuxhaven line in Lower Saxony starting in December 2017, Die Welt reported on Tuesday.

The train - called the "Coradia iLint" - has been developed over the past two years by French company Alstom and was presented on Tuesday at the Berlin InnoTrans trade show.


Photo: Alstom press office

The hydrogen train operates using a hydrogen fuel tank, stored on the roof of the train, that in turn powers a fuel cell to produce electrical energy. This technology provides a new environmentally friendly alternative to the diesel trains that are still used across much of Germany.

“Alstom is proud to launch a breakthrough innovation in the field of clean transportation which will complete its Coradia range of regional trains," said Alstom chairman and CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge, in a statement...snip

... Engineers have been developing ‘hydrail’ technology for the last 15 years, but mostly with freight trains.

In 2006, the East Japan Railway Company gave the first test run for a hydrail railcar. And in 2015, a Chinese company introduced the first hydrail tram...snip
Read More: http://www.thelocal.de/20160920/first-alstom-hydrogen-train-at-berlin-innotrans-tradeshow

Comment by moon-worshiper on Reddit:

The more informative aspect of this news is who is making the Locomotive Motors? Plus Germany is now more advanced than the US and Japanese in powerful, affordable fuel cells. In the US, fuel cells have virtually no presence beyond NASA, where they are recognized as very high cost, because space. Japan introduced the first fuel cell Honda to the US several years ago. Those first ones cost $2 million and weighed a couple thousand more pounds than an equivalent gas compact. Honda is introducing the fuel cell car next year for $50,000 sticker. Things might change. The PEM (proton exchange membrane) with platinum catalyst is what was making fuel cells expensive, heavy, with a lot of waste heat.

A Fuel Cell Electric Locomotive is a big thing. It means it can transport container rail cars, which will decrease long haul trucks. This advancement from Germany is from their Type 212 submarine, a hybrid closed cycle diesel and fuel cell propulsion, both driving the propeller electric motors. Submarines can have a heavy propulsion system since they are meant to be negatively buoyant most of the time.

That is fantastic the Germans have kept refining the size and cost of fuel cells while increasing electric motor power and decreasing size. The submarine use has also given them extremely detailed information about cost to run and reliability. The reason fuel cell is different? It is an independent power source. And those submarines are traveling very long distances underwater, and silently.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/53nfpt/worlds_first_hydrogen_train_to_go_into_service_in/

in Deutschland, Wasserstoff und Brennstoffzellen sind die Zukunft