Germany will inaugurate a fully hydrogen-powered railway line on Wednesday, a “world first” and a big step forward for green rail travel despite nagging supply problems.
A fleet of 14 trains made available to the German state of Lower Saxony by French industrial giant Alstom will replace diesel locomotives on the 100-kilometer route linking the cities of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde and Buxtehude near Hamburg.
“Thanks to hydrogen, passengers will be able to travel this route at any time of the day,” said Stefan Wardrobe, project manager at Alstom, of the AFP news agency, welcoming a “world first”.
Hydrogen trains have become a promising way to decarbonize the rail sector and replace diesel, which still powers 20 percent of journeys in Germany.
The trains, touted as “zero emission” modes of transport, mix onboard hydrogen with oxygen from the ambient air thanks to a fuel cell installed in the roof. This generates the electricity needed to pull the train.
– run for his money –
Designed in Tarbes, southern France, and assembled in Salzgitter, central Germany, Alstom’s trains – dubbed Coradia iLint – are pioneering in the industry.
According to Alstom, the project attracted investments of “several tens of millions of euros” and created jobs for up to 80 employees in the two countries.
Commercial trials of two hydrogen trains have been running on the route since 2018, but now the entire fleet is adopting the breakthrough technology.
The French group has signed four contracts for several dozen trains between Germany, France and Italy and there are no signs of demand abating.
In Germany alone, “between 2,500 and 3,000 diesel trains could be replaced by hydrogen models,” estimates Wardrobe.
“By 2035, around 15 to 20 percent of the regional European market could be powered by hydrogen,” Alexandre Charpentier, rail expert at consultancy Roland Berger, told AFP.
Hydrogen trains are particularly attractive on short regional routes, where the cost of switching to electric exceeds the profitability of the route.
Around every second regional train in Europe currently runs on diesel.
But Alstom’s competitors are ready to declare war on him. German giant Siemens partnered with Deutsche Bahn in May to unveil a prototype hydrogen train, due to launch in 2024.
But despite the attractive prospects, Charpentier said, “there are real obstacles” to a major expansion with hydrogen.
First of all, trains aren’t the only mode of transport starving for fuel.
The entire industry, whether road vehicles or airplanes, not to mention heavy industries like steel and chemicals, is striving for hydrogen to reduce CO2 emissions.
– Colossal investment –
Despite Germany announcing an ambitious €7 billion plan in 2020 to become a leader in hydrogen technologies within a decade, Europe’s top economy still lacks infrastructure.
It’s a problem seen across the continent where colossal investments would be required for a true hydrogen shift.
“For this reason, we don’t see a 100 percent replacement of diesel trains with hydrogen,” Charpentier said.
In addition, hydrogen is not necessarily carbon-free: only “green hydrogen”, produced with renewable energy, is considered sustainable in expert circles.
There are other, more common manufacturing processes that emit greenhouse gases because they are made from fossil fuels.
The Lower Saxony line will initially have to resort to a hydrogen by-product of certain industries such as the chemical industry.
The French research institute IFP, which specializes in energy issues, says that hydrogen currently “comes to 95 percent from the conversion of fossil fuels, almost half of which comes from natural gas”.
Europe’s continued dependence on gas from Russia amid massive tensions over Ukraine’s invasion of the Kremlin poses major challenges for the development of hydrogen in rail transport.
“Political leaders must decide which sector to prioritize when determining what the production of hydrogen will or will not be used for,” Charpentier said.
Germany will also have to import massive amounts to cover its needs.
Partnerships were recently signed with India and Morocco, and an agreement to import hydrogen from Canada was on the agenda of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit this week.
#Whistleblowers #Germany #worlds #hydrogen #train #fleet
