Hydrogen-powered railway technology began around 20 years ago with Japanese experiments and a tiny U.S. underground mining locomotive that used a fuel cell so it did not have to be taken out of service to charge its batteries. Since then, hydrogen electrochemical railway traction has progressed to trams, commuter and intercity trains, and switcher and freight locomotives.
Earlier this year, Spanish train building giant, Patentes Talgo S.L. or just “Talgo,” undertook to move hydrail—hydrogen power railway traction—over the finish line. Spain’s Talgo is set to build the first-ever high-speed hydrail trains, named Europe’s most efficient high-speed rail network last November in a report by engineering consultancy, Ineco. This will be another feather in the cap for Spain. Could this be the start of a more widespread transition to hydrogen-powered railway? And what are the cogs that need to turn to make this a reality?
Talgo is not Spain’s first foray into hydrail. In 2006 Dr. Carlos Navas, then Chief Technical Officer of hydrail startup, NTDA Energìa, attended the Second International Hydrail Conference in Denmark. Soon after, he opened an NTDA Energìa office in Raleigh, North Carolina. Later, in Brussels, he headed the European Community’s Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking. In 2008 Dr. Navas organized the Fourth International Hydrail Conference in Valencia. One of the first hydrail trams was demonstrated in Northern Spain by FEVE narrow gauge railways in 2011.
Talgo’s undertaking will showcase the capability of hydrogen-powered transport. In the hydrail world, “high‑speed” marks the equivalent of evolving from hand-wired transistor devices to integrated chips.
“Most hydrail pioneers in academia and the rail industry didn’t expect to see high-speed hydrail emerge anywhere near this soon,” explains Stan Thompson, Co-founder of the Mooresville Hydrail Initiative. “The scale limiting factor with hydrail is the amount of hydrogen that can be carried aboard to make the electric energy that powers the vehicle. The heavier and faster a rail vehicle or train is, the harder it is to store enough hydrogen onboard to move it fast enough and far enough.”
The gold standard in “fast” and “far” is high-speed rail. Until Talgo’s hydrail breakthrough, the answer has been to leave the electric source stationary and have trains drag an electric contact along a fixed overhead wire (OHC) or a hot “third rail” beside the track to tap the grid’s power.
OHC was invented in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the early 1880s. Now 144 years old, its been in use about twenty years longer than American steam rail’s entire history.
OHC is proven and durable. Where it is already deployed, it’s likely to continue in place until either the capital cost of refurbishing it, or the high labor cost of maintenance, justifies replacing it with wireless hydrail.
But there are two big reasons why OHC, with its advantages, isn’t everywhere: it’s ugly and it’s very expensive.
“In cities, where billions have been spent to bury electrical and communications out of sight, OHC poles, guys and catenary wire are archaic eyesores,” explains Thompson.
“The main factor limiting OHC deployment is its high capital and maintenance cost. OHC rolling stock actually costs a little less than self-powered diesel or hydrail equipment,” he says. “But the cost of the stationary plant needed to get power to the vehicle’s onboard traction motors is huge.”
By comparison, a trackside hydrogen filling station can cost two million dollars; that’s a lot—but it powers the whole line. That same expenditure for OHC electrifies only about 900 feet of track. And, once installed, OHC maintenance runs to about $150,000 per mile every year.
So electrification requires a lot of traffic and revenue to be affordable. That translates to high population density, which is why most of Europe’s rail network can justify electrification.
China also has a high population density and, until recently, had a booming economy that let them spring for 37,900 kilometers of OHC high‑speed rail. But if Talgo’s high-speed hydrail lets the New World “go wireless,” it could act as a catalyst for further adoption of hydrogen-powered trains.
With just 90 people per square killometer Spain is the least densely populated country in Western Europe, except for Ireland. Compare Spain’s 90 people/Km2 with 233 people/Km2 for Germany, with 277 people/Km2 for the United Kingdom or with 121/Km2 for France, and it’s not surprising that Spain and Talgo would seek to be the first in Europe to develop a zero-carbon, high-speed hydrail service.
But with only 90/Km2, Spain’s population is positively dense when compared with the USA’s 37 people per Km2 or with Canada’s 4.2 per Km2. Spain’s willingness to tackle the daunting volumetric H2 density engineering problem could totally change the electrification game for America’s and Canada’s comparatively wide-open spaces.
At its peak in 1930, US track electrification topped-out at about 3,100 miles of track. Today, that’s down to about 1,778 miles. But the total amount of US track is also significantly reduced: roughly 140,000 miles, versus 249,000 miles back in 1930 when trains—not airlines or interstate highways—were the primary mode of intercity travel.
Growing population; climate concerns; airport terminal congestion; resistance to airport sprawl; diminished interest in driving; and sprouting interurban communities all increase the attractiveness of an interconnected American high-speed and regional hydrail network.
The U.S.’s first hydrogen fuel cell powered train opened this year between San Bernardino and Redlands, California. Swiss hydrail train maker Stadler’s San Bernardino FLIRT train achieved a world-record of 3,000km without refuelling.
“If OHC can be supplanted by onboard power, high-speed rail should happen sooner and be much more widely deployed,” says Thompson of the Mooresville Hydrail Initiative, which began integrating efforts of international hydrogen railway pioneers back in 2005. “Talgo’s about to take hydrail across the finish line.”
“For years,” says Thompson, “rail experts thought freight hydrail was beyond reach because not enough H2 could be squeezed onboard. Now Canadian Pacific Kansas City and CSX Railway have announced they’ll sell other railroads kits for diesel-to-hydrogen locomotive conversion.”
Thompson coined the term-of-art “hydrail” in 2003 to demonstrate that introduction of hydrogen in the railway industry was a paradigm shift comparable to replacement of steam by diesel during the 1920s—40s.
