RIX Industries
M2H2: Hydrail’s Fast Track to Clean Energy Fuel Cells
- This article first appeared in the Railway-News magazine Issue 3 2021.
Leveraging Mobile Hydrogen Generation Systems to Power Today’s Trains for Tomorrow’s Decarbonisation Mandates
It’s an outdated approach to propulsion and a critical global challenge yet to be solved, even as addressing climate change has reached fever pitch. Governments around the world are facing mounting pressure to clean up the environment and have responded with mandates that include international net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Understanding the benefits of swift action, the UK’s rail transportation authority has imposed its own deadline for zero emissions industrywide, culminating in the elimination of all diesel-only trains, or the transformation thereof, by 2040. This is a full ten years before the national (and international) carbon deadline; many other countries are expected to follow suit. Certainly great news for the environment and its inhabitants, but quite the conundrum for an industry that has relied heavily on diesel for nearly a century. Fuel cell technology, which uses clean hydrogen (H2) as its energy source, is poised to play a critical role in cleaning up the industry and getting trains on track for a greener, carbon-free future.
Fuel cells: From H2 to ‘Where to?’
Powered by hydrogen, today’s fuel cell (FC) technologies give train manufacturers and rail operators a readily available yet environmentally friendly source of propulsion, now known as hydrail. FCs generate clean, renewable energy and have been touted as key to decarbonisation and reduction of greenhouse gases.