October 21, 2019

In view of the global warming and its potential catastrophic consequences, the leading world powers are having to search for alternatives for mineral fuel types to reduce their impact to the atmosphere. Hydrogen may be a promising replacement to oil and gas – successful tests on hydrogen are underway in Germany and Great Britain. In this regard, railway transport has most potential: hydrogen-powered trains will replace diesel-powered locomotives. However, the future of this nature friendly gas is ambivalent – the damage from generation of hydrogen may be much greater than the positive effect from its use.

A blue rail carriage

One after another, the world leading advanced countries are proceeding with the decarbonisation policy, i.e., reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. It is aimed that hydrogen will resolve the emissions issue – using transport means fired with this gas will allow bringing the level of emissions actually to zero. Diesel-powered locomotives that currently carry approximately 20 per cent of railway freight in Europe are considered as the major claimant for use of hydrogen. The first hydrogen-powered trains were presented in 2016 in France; however, such passenger trains are already carrying passengers in Lower Saxony (Germany) between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervorde and Buxtehude.

The French concern Alstom production Coradia iLint trains differ from standard electrically powered passenger trains for their bright-blue colour and lack of usual current-collecting gear (the “horns” on the train roof). A fully fuelled train can run for a thousand kilometers, while its maximum speed is 140 kilometers an hour. The current collecting gears on train roofs are replaced by liquefied hydrogen tanks and fuel cells, which generate electricity. Any excessive electricity is accumulated in the lithium-ion batteries, located under the train floor. The French producer claims that no hazardous substances are emitted to the atmosphere: only the water vapour and condensed water.

At the moment, there are only two such trains operating, but by 2021, there will be minimum 14 running trains – several regions in Germany and other European and North American countries are showing interest in such trains. Lower Saxony is the leader of launching the hydrogen trains; in near future the local authorities are intending to replace diesel-powered trains by hydrogen trains and they already allocated over 80 million Euros (about 87.7 million dollars) for upgrading the trains.

The main problem of the emerging industry is insufficient infrastructure and synthesising facilities. There are simply no hydrogen-fuelling stations; however, the industry is planning to change the trend: they are going to build a new hydrogen fuel station in Hessen federal state, and they will continue importing the hydrogen fuel until this project is fully implemented. The Netherlands are the major partner of the Germans, who will be supplying the gas to the mobile fuelling station in Bremervorde.

Diesel is evil

Great Britain – a country with the oldest railway system is in bad need in new environmentally friendly trains. The average age of the British railway rolling stock is 18 years – the trains were put into operation for a decade before the EU adopted the standards for hazardous substance emissions to the atmosphere.

Only a little over of a half out of 16 thousand kilometres of the wail roads in the country are electrified, while the rest are used by diesel-powered rolling stock. The research by British and American scientists demonstrated that closed stations with diesel-powered trains are dangerous for passengers: hazardous substances are accumulated in the air due to discharge of gases. There is a campaign in the country to get rid of such locomotives; the government is planning to completely stop using diesel-powered locomotives to 2040.

Use of hydrogen-powered trains may be a solution. Birmingham Centre for Railway research and Education (BCRRE) and the rolling stock solutions supplier Porterbrook have already developed a prototype of a hybrid model – HydroFlex. For most of the route such hydrogen trains will be supplied from the electrical networks (through the contact rails or along air - lines), and while there is no such a possibility – they would use hydrogen. Theunit that consists of  fuel cells, batteries and a gas bottle is installed in one of the four railway cars. Such hybrids have not yet been used for passenger transportation, but such tests along the railway network are planned to start in 2019.

The opportunities of using hydrogen are not limited with its use on railway trains – use of the gas has been started at large railway infrastructure facilities outside Europe. For example, the Japanese company Toshiba equipped an H2One hydrogen power station at the Kawasaki station. In case of a power failure due to, for example, any natural calamity, the station may operate offline. Solar panels and a wind turbine are installed on the roof of the station. The generated power is put through water; and the oxygen, generated from the electrolysis is emitted to the atmosphere, while hydrogen is send to the fuel cells. Water is heated during the process of gas oxidation, which is used for warming of the sitting benches in winter, and in summer - it is pumped to a tank.

The hydrogen stumbling rock

The main positive aspect of hydrogen is its environmentally friendly feature. However, everything rests on the complexity of obtaining, producing the raw material: pure hydrogen is very rarely found in nature. There are several ways of producing hydrogen. The environmentally friendly, clean method is generation of hydrogen via electrolysis, when electric current is put through water. This can be implemented using wind turbines or solar batteries: in this case, hydrogen becomes a renewable energy source. The issue of economic viability, profitability has to be resolved here: if the wind turbines do not operate at uniform, even generation capacity for the whole day, they may need regular power supply from the mains network. In such a case, it is impossible to talk about the renewability of the energy, and generation cost of the gas jumps up.

Hydrogen can also be generated from methane (natural gas); the process is called steam reforming; the process generates highly toxic carbon monoxide (CO), which can be converted to carbon dioxide (CO₂); but in such a case, hydrogen fuel would again facilitate emission of greenhouse gases. This gas can also be generated during inter-reaction with sulphur and iodine at heating, Such thermochemical process is run at very few new generation power generating stations in the USA, Japan and China; although with current speed of development of this technology one cannot expect a radical stepping up of hydrogen synthesis technology to a new level.

In 2014, a cheap hydrogen generation technology was presented in Switzerland, based on Solar energy. An artificial photosynthesis unit consists of two solar photovoltaic perovskite (a mineral – calcium titanate) cells and a catalyser. The only shortcoming of this system is in its short life: the components of the unit are destructed in several hours, which excludes production scales of generation.

In the rear end

Notwithstanding the complexity of hydrogen generation, the hydrogen-powered trains will only be a small part of the “hydrogen economy,” where the gas will be as important as the major natural resources. According to the forecasts by the Hydrogen Council analytical centre, the reforms will require 20-25 billion dollars’ worth of investments annually worldwide. In Russia, hydrogen energy will be established no earlier than 2025-2030’s provided that the country invests no less than 4 billion dollars into the industry annually. While even such a level of funding would not lead to payback – initial costs of a complete launching are assessed as 3 billion dollars.

While the hydrogen technology is floating to the centre of the world energy agenda, Russia is left aside. A research work by the “Moscow Management School “Skolkovo” says that “Primarily, this is explained by the insignificant role of the climate agenda and decarbonisation in the energy strategy, which significantly delays development of not only hydrogen, but any low-carbon technologies as a whole”. Professionals say that in near future, hydrogen may start playing the role, which is now played by oil, coal, and gas. This gas is generated in industrial scales in the country, but the gas is mainly used in oil processing, metallurgy and chemical industry.

At the government level, the Ministry of Energy had the first discussions of the potentials of hydrogen technologies in participation of “Rostech”, “Gazprom”, “Sibur” and “Rosatom”. After the negotiations, the parties decided to prepare a hydrogen energy sector development programme. Inspired by the achievements in Europe, Russia also decided to launch hydrogen-powered trains. The Sakhalin oblast  may become a pilot region for hydrogen technologies.

In the beginning of September, the “Rosatom” State Corporation, the Russian Railways Company, and “Transmahholding” Company signed an agreement to establish a railway connection with trains that use hydrogen fuel cells. The Sakhalin oblast may be a pilot area, while the technologies will subsequently checked in the Far East. “Rosatom” will a potential supplier of hydrogen and fuel cells.

Source: https://lenta.ru/articles/2019/10/21/vodorod/

Translated into English by Muhiddin Ganiev