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Fuel Cell Trains

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doug

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I heard this on NPR Science Friday last week. It presents a possible application that at least makes more sense than in automobiles.

Could Hydrogen Fuel Cells Hit Rails Before Roads? : NPR

Geoffrey Styles wrote a thoughtful blog about the radio program:

Energy Outlook - Fuel Cell Trains

... The key benefits of using fuel cells instead of big diesels for this application include substantial reductions in local pollutants, including soot, along with much quieter operation. Unfortunately, even if fuel cell trains could circumvent many of the infrastructure hurdles that have impeded automotive fuel cells, they still look prohibitively expensive. Diesels are pretty cheap on the basis of $ per kilowatt of generating capacity, while fuel cells are still much pricier, by at least a factor of 10.

Ignoring cost, fuel cell trains would face fewer obstacles to wide-scale deployment than fuel cell cars. As one of the program's guest pointed out, hydrogen storage, the Achilles heel of fuel cell cars, is not a problem in this situation. If necessary, a fuel cell train could carry an entire tank-car of compressed hydrogen behind the locomotive, and it wouldn't alter the train's performance or cost appreciably. That would also reduce the need for a widely-dispersed refueling infrastructure. ...
...

... At least for the near-to-medium term, most H2 will likely be generated from natural gas, and that argues for a very different configuration for the fuel cell train than the one considered in this episode of Science Friday. Instead of using low-temperature automotive-design fuel cells, which require a source of pure H2, a high-temperature fuel cell of the type used for stationary power generation might make more sense. Not only do these operate more efficiently, resulting in lower overall emissions, but they can also run directly on natural gas and other light hydrocarbons, producing the H2 they require internally, rather than externally. In that case, the fuel tank for a fuel cell locomotive might just be an ordinary propane tank car, for which the entire supply chain is already well-developed.
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HazardEx - Derailed LPG train explosion leaves 13 dead

At least 15 killed, many hurt in Italy train LPG explosion



This was looked at in the UK. A report in 2007 basically said keep the status quo and rely on developments like H2 coming along to give zero emissions on non-electrified lines. Within two years that policy has been reversed and they are now going to wire up lines where there is a good business case for doing so (two of the UK's main lines are currently diesel only).

In the meantime, a new generation of bi-mode hybrid trains is being developed that can run on electricity only or use a diesel/battery series hybrid power source when away from the wires. This will allow a phased completion of wiring the rest of the network.

To prove this can be done, Hitachi converted a 30 year old express train to a li-ion / diesel hybrid. It used a 50kWh, 1 tonne battery to power the train up to 30 km/h and then the diesel took over.

One problem this hydrogen idea has is that an express train such as that described above requires 2.5 - 3 MW at the rails to start on a typical hill and to sustain top speed (200km/h in this case). That is a seriously big fuel cell.

Seems to me that railways are a pretty bad use of fuel cells. You know where the vehicle is going, it's possible to supply it with power through simple technology and most lines have enough traffic to justify electrification. Where they don't, these are typically short branches or gaps in the network - in which case a fully BEV train which can fast charge when under the wires could be interesting. There could be short stretches of recharge wires close to stations (where you have supplies and the train is moving more slowly, spending more time under a given length of wire).

With train cars costing well over £1m each these days, swapping diesels for batteries in limited circumstances could be attractive.
 
Ultimately it comes down to cost.

The hydrogen advocates are struggling to find some segment where the technology they support can be successful and then spurn the development of that H2 fueling infrastructure. Trains are an application that require fewer "miracles" than cars, but it's still a bit of a stretch given how expensive it is compared to alternatives.
 
Ultimately it comes down to cost.
It always does. Outside of space applications the high cost of hydrogen fuel cells is hard to justify, given available alternatives.

Interestingly, the article mentions SOFC. Storage is much cheaper, but I wonder how expensive is the fuel-cell itself.

For the future, lithium air batteries, with their high energy density may provide long-haul capacity for sparsely populated areas or locales lacking electric infrastructure. European tracks will likely be fully electrified by then.