Posted on 09/24/2016 1:14:49 AM PDT by aquila48
This week, French transit company Alstom unveiled the world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train, which will begin making trips in Germany at the end of the 2017. The news was first reported by German newspaper Die Welt.
The super-quiet Coradia iLint passenger train is powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which emit only steam and condensed water. A hydrogen fuel tank stored on the roof of the train powers the fuel cells to produce electrical energy. Alstom said it hopes its hydrogen-fueled trains can replace Europe’s many diesel-burning ones, which are still in wide use despite numerous electrification projects across the continent.
Alstom unveiled the new train at InnoTrans, an annual trade show in Berlin this week. Starting at the end of 2017, the train will run on the Buxtehude-Bremervörde-Bremerhaven-Cuxhaven line in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony. Lower Saxony's local transportation authority has meanwhile ordered 14 trains of the type. Testing and approval by the German Federal Railway Authority Eisenbahn-Bundesamt will commence in fall 2016 and is expected to be completed by end of 2017.
The Coradia iLint may be the world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train, but it’s certainly not the first vehicle to run on hydrogen fuel cells. Stan Thompson, former strategic planner at AT&T and long-term advocate of the use of hydrogen for rail transportation, coined the term "hydrail" in 2004 to describe any type of rail vehicle that uses hydrogen fuel cells. There have been prototypes and hybrid trains in the meantime, most notably in Japan.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
Is it called Hindenburg?
Every car will have a muslim on board to make sure the white women are taken care of.
The commuter trains coming into Grand Central Station in New York City have to change locomotives from diesel to electric in order to travel underground. That step could be eliminated.
It's not practical to redo all the thousands of miles of mainline trackage in the United States and install electric wires, so hydrogen is a great solution.
Have you ever lived near a railroad track and been awakened in the middle of the night by the roar of a diesel locomotive? Hydrogen fuel cell locomotives are silent.
So many reasons to favor hydrogen fuel cells.
Railroad locomotive technology has gone from wood burning steam to coal burning steam to diesel electric. I envision the hydrogen fuel cell locomotive as the next logical step.
Solution in search of a Problem
easier to Electrictrify Many remaining Lines
The Muslims will appreciate it.
My exact first thought also “Is it called hindenburg?”
Maybe its a train only for muslims, with a one way ride to paradise...hahaha
It’s a good thing that terrorists don’t know about tracers and incendiary rounds.
Good one!
Amazing that automobiles can not be powered with hydrogen fuel cells. I happen to believe that they can but someone real high up on the “food chain” spent a fortune on Al Gores electric car and that is getting shoved down our throat.
OK, I give up, what is condensed water.
Fuel cells generate electricity. So in a hydrogen powered car, there would be fuel cells instead of batteries (and of course a hydrogen pressure tank), but the car’s propulsion would be electric. Much of the technology developed for electric cars, except for the huge batteries, would carry over to a hydrogen powered car.
Like many, I was concerned about the potential for explosions. But, it may be less than one would think. I saw some photographs of a hydrogen car deliberately set on fire. When the tank overpressured and vented, and later ruptured, there was just a brief hydrogen flame. The air/hydrogen mixture was of the wrong ratio to explode, and the hydrogen was so much less dense than air that it rapidly went upwards and dissipated.
If you can, try to watch the NOVA episode, “Invisible Flame.” It’s from the 80s IIRC. After seeing it at the time, I also thought hydrogen would be the next step.
What about Nat Gas?
When I was working in downtown Chicago, I would take the train in from the suburbs. Upon arrival, the smell of diesel exhaust was obnoxious. I thought - "It would be so much better if this train were powered by hydrogen fuel cells. No noise, no smell, no toxic exhaust.”Alstom said it hopes its hydrogen-fueled trains can replace Europe’s many diesel-burning ones, which are still in wide use despite numerous electrification projects across the continent.
You can get half way, maybe more (I don’t have the figures at my fingertips as to the relative lower heating values of carbon and hydrogen) without all the expense of replacing the diesel engines in existing locomotives. Simply install carburetors on their engines, and replace the diesel injectors with smaller capacity ones. And, of course, install a LNG tank on the locomotive in place of the diesel fuel oil tank, retaining a small oil tank for the smaller injectors.The carburetor must be limited to provide a mixture of natural gas and air which is always too lean to auto-ignite due to the high temperature of the diesel engine’s compression. Thus, the normal - but small - diesel injectors function as igniters like spark plugs in a gasoline engine. This system was discussed in my Internal Combustion Engines textbook back in the Eisenhower era. Combustion is smooth like a gasoline engine, but the efficiency is high - even better than that of the conventional diesel.
I’m always bemused by plans for a “hydrogen economy” when we don’t have a cheap enough source of hydrogen to begin to compete on price with natural gas. Granted that the fuel cell is more efficient than any thermodynamic cycle - but, I repeat, where do you get the H2 from??? If by electrolysis, where did you get the electricity from? If from NG, what do you do with all the free carbon - throw it away?
I admit, its use is one of the better ideas coming from liberals, in spite of being dangerous and hard to store (/sarc).
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