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Germany rolls out the world’s first hydrogen-powered train

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The world’s first hydrogen-powered train began service in Germany, part of a push to challenge the might of polluting diesel trains with costlier but more eco-friendly technology.

Two bright blue Coradia iLint trains, built by French TGV-maker Alstom, began running a 100-kilometre route between the towns and cities of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervoerde and Buxtehude in northern Germany — a stretch normally plied by diesel trains.

 

“The world’s first hydrogen train is entering into commercial service and is ready for serial production,” Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge said at an unveiling ceremony in Bremervoerde, the station where the trains will be refuelled with hydrogen.

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Alstom has said it plans to deliver another 14 of the zero-emissions trains to Lower Saxony state by 2021, with other German states also expressing an interest.


Paul Mutolo, a chemist and director of External Partnerships for the Energy Materials Center at Cornell University, who has worked in the energy sector for over 16 years says the next market for hydrogen fuel cell products lies in “heavy duty transportation” such as trains, and that Germany is leading the way.

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“Hydrogen provides a power train that is much less massive, a vehicle with greater range, and much faster refueling time than battery electric options. Similar developments in this sector are fuel cell-powered tractor-trailers, transit buses and ferry boats.

Hydrogen trains are equipped with fuel cells that produce electricity through a combination of hydrogen and oxygen, a process that leaves steam and water as the only emissions.

Excess energy is stored in ion lithium batteries on board the train.

The Coradia iLint trains can run for around 1,000 kilometres on a single tank of hydrogen, similar to the range of diesel trains.

Alstom is betting on the technology as a greener, quieter alternative to diesel on non-electrified railway lines — an attractive prospect to many German cities scrambling to combat air pollution.

Other countries are also looking into hydrogen trains, Alstom said, including Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Italy and Canada.

In France, the government has already said it wants the first hydrogen train to be on the rails by 2022.

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