Alstom wants to test its hydrogen powered trains in the UK and is in talks about running a trial in the Liverpool area.
The DfT’s recent scaling back of rail electrification plans means that there will be greater demand for non-electric trains, including alternatives to diesel.
Alstom UK managing director for trains and modernisation Mike Hulme said: “We’re working with Liverpool city region to establish a source of hydrogen from the refineries in the Ellesmere Port area and we believe that the Liverpool area would be a good test case.”
Hulme suggested Liverpool-Chester services as a suitable trial for the hydrogen train. Network Rail’s Halton Curve project is currently under way to restore a section of track near Frodsham in Cheshire, making possible a new hourly service between Liverpool and Chester from December next year. Alstom’s new Widnes technology centre is nearby, and north-west England has an established rail engineering skills base, he said.
He added: “There has been dialogue with Liverpool city region and various Roscos about how we can develop a demonstrator. It is an option which we’re pushing quite heavily, and we seem to be getting some traction.”
Alstom’s Coradia iLint train, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, is currently undergoing tests in Germany and the Czech Republic, with the aim of conducting passenger test runs on the Buxtehude–Bremervörde–Bremerhaven–Cuxhaven route early in 2018. Earlier this year (March 2017) it perfromed a successful test at 80 km/h on Alstom’s test track in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony.
Hulme said that the question of emissions would drive a search for alternatives to diesel technology, and questioned whether emissions from diesel trains around key terminus stations such as Euston would be tolerated in the medium to longer term. “I suggest they won’t, so there has to be an alternative technology. Clearly hydrogen could be one of those technologies.”
Other options include battery technology. Bombardier Transportation has conducted research in this area in recent years and modified a Class 379 Electrostar to demonstrate it could match the performance of the electric version running on battery power. Hitachi’s bi-mode trains are capable of running on electric power where it is available and diesel elsewhere, which also contributes to reducing emissions.
Following the DfT’s announcement on electrification in July, Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram tweeted: “Stop on electrification provides greater opportunities for hydrogen trains. Alstom UK in Widnes is leading the way alongside our H2 companies.”
Someday the fuel cell will fulfil its promise, but looks like a long way off.
Hydrogen seems to be the in answer to everything, but I’m pleased to note that Mike Hulme’s engines are “gaining traction”.
Surely, the biggest cost benefit is to make diesels cleaner, possibly by extra filtration in urban areas.
It is hard to believe that converting natural gas to hydrogen can ever really be a sensible approach to power or heat generation, other than in the green-fantasy world inhabited by our subsidy-hungry political classes.
Converting methane to hydrogen does not seem to me to make sense. You might just as well burn the hydrogen and use the energy to power the train. At least there will only be CO2 and water as by-products of the combustion and no NOx.
Meanwhile, the fuel cell still awaits a practical and portable source of hydrogen. We know that we can split water using aluminium but only at high temperatures and in the presence of corrosive substances like caustic soda. Not an ideal process to be carrying round on a train.
However the US Army research labs recently (Spring 2017) announced a breakthrough using powdered aluminium and a couple of rare earth elements which will produce hydrogen from WATER at a decent rate AT ROOM TEMPERATURES. Their team leader said that he believed that the process will scale up to at least power a bus. I am looking forward to filling my car up with the garden hose! (Well at least until the inevitable hose pipe ban is imposed!!)
Please see:
http://trueviralnews.com/us-army-creates-powder-that-recharges-equipment-in-the-field/
What are we waiting for?
Quentin Macdonald
Sadly burning anything in an internal combustion engine produces NOx because air is present and contains about 70 percent Nitrogen. Under compression and high temperature the Nitrogen will combine with some of the Oxygen to produce oxides of Nitrogen. It does not really matter how “clean” the fuel is.
This is a specific reply to Ian Bottle. I agree that IC engines produce Nox because the air used in combustion is about 70% nitrogen. However, I was most careful to say Fuel Cell in my piece above. Fuel Cells do not produce NOx as a byproduct. Please have another read of what I wrote. I will be interested to see your comments. QM
I suggest a quick look at ITM Power’s, web site will be of interest to you guys.
I used to work at ICI at Runcorn in the 1960s. In those days hydrogen was a byproduct of the production of chlorine.
To produce Hydrogen try iron filings and Tartaric acid and a little heat, careful though, I have never heard of Aluminium being used, be a little patient, it will happen Hydrogen can explode if you do the wrong things so can every other thing we use for fuel, do study ITM power, embrace the future, you can always find negatives, but be positive, the future is very bright, good bye to those over engineered ice engines.
Hydrogen fuel cell trains have been successfully trialled and tested in Germany.
You can easily prepare hydrogen from water by electrolysis. This is not terribly efficient, but I submit this is less important if the energy is free.
If the hydrogen is generated from renewables – or nuclear – at times when demand is low, then – depending on the agreement made with the supplier – it can prove cheaper to give it away (or even to pay someone to take it!) than to ask the supplier to turn off his plant.
Under such circumstances, it makes perfect sense to use hydrogen for trains. I suspect that the saving made in not having to electrify the track is another strong financial incentive to try the idea out, although as a frequent user of the line between Liverpool and Chester I have to report it is already electrified.
Hydrogen powered trains are a reality today and are available from Alstom. Germany has 20 on order with a further 33 for future delivery. The hydrogen is likely to be produced at the refuelling stations from grid electricity and water, as is now widely done in Germany where there are some 40 hydrogen filling stations for cars and trucks. There’s not much more testing needed to role out hydrogen powered trains in the UK, not only for lines that are not electrified, but to replace diesel locomotives which are a health hazard, especially in main line stations such as New Street in Birmingham.
Reply to Martin Williams
I was a bit confused by that. It seems the line they are talking about is Chester to Liverpool Lime Street via Frodsham and a (re-opened) Halton Curve, not the Merseyrail line to Central. Don’t know if it’s come to anything though…