Converting diesel trains running on non-electrified lines to renewable energy is a difficult task. The most suitable solution for this job is hydrogen fuel. While fuel cell-operated trains combine the hydrogen in their tanks with oxygen again, they travel by running electric motors with the electricity produced. Since this energy is renewable, it does not need to be imported and can reduce foreign dependency.
Germany, which has a lot of renewable energy and started to think about what to do with the extra electricity produced in very sunny or windy weather, has put its first hydrogen-powered trains into operation in the past months. These trains can run 800 km during the day with a fuel tank of 130 kg. What’s more, it only takes 20 minutes to refill when needed.
China is starting to use hydrogen fueled trains on passenger and freight trains. It is interesting that hydrogen to be used as fuel at the stations is the by-product of the chemical industry in the region after production. The alternative to hydrogen is to lay electricity on the line, but this is not very meaningful in long lines with low traffic. Another solution is battery trains, but this is the high weight of the train and the fact that the batteries will be heavy for this reason, making them inefficient on lines over 100 km.
Even if only 30% of the energy is recovered when it is used to create hydrogen and generate electricity again, it provides great security for countries that want to produce energy directly within their own economic wheels. Moreover, this technology can be used to offset the volatility of renewable energy. For this reason, electricity in Europe is already free when it is produced in excess, and sometimes even at a negative price due to incentives. The use of electricity from trains, trucks and natural gas lines, which will be wasted with the hydrogen produced in these times, can achieve many things.
As you know, China is a country that is extremely dependent on foreign energy. Just because of this, he goes into an energy crisis every now and then. As a solution to this, they always try to produce their own energy. The country is doing incredible R&D studies on this.
The train, which has a speed of 160 km / h, whose copyrights belong entirely to Chinese companies, has a range of 600 km and a capacity of 1502 passengers in a single filling. The train was a different version of China’s Fuxing Bullet trains.
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