This train is being trialed by an oil subsidiary so I think there is more than a little greenwashing going on here. The vast majority of hydrogen is “blue”, i.e. it’s manufactured from fossil fuels, so there is no environmental benefit to this. Even if it were “green”, i.e. made from water and renewable energy, the same power used to make the hydrogen, store it, transport it, turn it back to power could charge 3 or 4 battery powered trains or tenders - the battery portion could detach so the locomotive hooks up to however many battery tenders it needs for its route or switches them out in the yard.
Comment on Hydrogen locomotive
li10@feddit.uk 1 year ago
While it may not be the best option, is it not good that somewhere is at least trying it?
As long as it’s not widespread adoption, it seems like a good idea to at least trial these sort of things on a small scale to properly determine the real world application, even if the conclusion is just “yeah, it shit”.
arc@lemm.ee 1 year ago
ProfessorPuzzleCode@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The environmental benefit of blue hydrogen is that it doesn’t put CO2 into the atmosphere. This is better than burning the hydrogen carbon gas it was produced from.
arc@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Except it does. This study suggests that the plants that produce hydrogen from fossil fuels are only capturing 80% of the CO2. And aside from that hydrogen has the potential to contribute 12x as much to global warming as CO2 emissions.
ProfessorPuzzleCode@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That statement is correct, but you are still wrong. Blue Hydrogen specifically refers to hydrogen produced fron fossiles where the CO2 is captured. There is just very little blue Hydrogen being made from fossiles- most production is either grey Hydrogen (from gas no capture) or brown (same but coal).
jfx@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
Honestly all this feels like the railway’s Dieselization 100yrs ago. When the end of steam powered engines was drawing near, coal hauling railroads and Baldwin Locomotive in the U.S. tried all kinds of whacky and hilariously inefficient engine designs, just to keep the ol’ ways alive… none of these worked out - everyone who stuck to it lost hugely. Viz. …m.wikipedia.org/…/Chesapeake_and_Ohio_class_M-1
BakedGoods@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
No! If it doesn’t immediately solve the issue it must be scrapped and no one should work to improve it!
Best regards, Every conservative party (and their corporate sponsors).
n2burns@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Most of the supporters of hydrogen trains are the Oil & Gas lobby, a traditionally conservative group. It’s another, “Technology will save us from climate change!” scheme, which will allow unabated oil extraction to continue so we can make hydrogen fuel.
qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
If I may?
Hydrogen, green hydrogen, can be produced from water, using electricity produced from renewables, like solar amd wind.
My own country is in the process of converting a decomissioned refinery into a hydrogen plant.
It may not solve much in the short term but as an energy reserve, hydrogen can find use directly as a fuel or for running gas turbines to produce electricity in replacement of conventional gas.
n2burns@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Green Hydrogen from Electrolysis is extremely inefficient (<30%). Renewable energy isn’t without cost or environmental impact, so we need to responsible with how we use it. Unless the grid you’re pulling from is 100% renewable and has excess power that is just being wasted, that renewable energy could be used elsewhere in a more efficient manner.
arc@lemm.ee 1 year ago
It can be made from water and renewables at about 3-4x the energy cost of charging a battery. In train terms, that means you could be operating 3 battery trains instead of 1 hydrogen train. Or you could charge 3 battery tenders and have the flexibility in your logistics of how many you hook up to your 1 train.
arc@lemm.ee 1 year ago
And this is exactly the case here. This train is being trialed by an oil subsidiary. They’ll greenwash it, proclaiming “nothing comes out of our train but water!”, neglecting the fact the hydrogen was made from fossil fuels.
madcaesar@lemmy.world 1 year ago
youtu.be/nSXIetP5iak?si=V-quSEb-Q5WKHY4z