The first train powered solely by hydrogen has started operating in North America, touring Canadian territory. This French-made passenger train is part of a demonstration that will last until the end of September and aims to boost its development in Canada and the United States.
“I think the most important thing is that people know about the technology and feel comfortable with it,” Robert Stasko, executive director of the Ontario Hydrogen Business Council, told CBC News.
The train runs on a route that goes from Montmorency Falls, in Quebec, to Baie-Saint-Paul, which is a two and a half hour journey. The railway reaches a top speed of 140 km/h and can carry up to 120 people in its two passenger carriages.
The French manufacturer of the train, Alstom, ensures that its acceleration and braking performance is comparable to that of normal diesel trains. While much of Europe uses electric rail or overhead wire trains, hydrogen trains are ideal for places like the Canadian countryside, with its long distances and relatively low passenger density.
This same model of train, known as Coradia iLint, has already circulated in eight European countries. Last year, 14 trains of the same model began to run a route in Lower Saxony, in Germany. Alstom began testing the trains in 2018 and has additional contracts in Germany, Italy and France.
A Coradia iLint uses approximately “about 50 kilograms of hydrogen a day,” explains Serge Harnois, CEO of Hanois Énergies, the company that supplies the train’s hydrogen fuel. The same journey with a normal engine would burn about 500 liters of diesel.
This model only emits water vapor along the way as a by-product of the combination of hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to generate its energy.
The long-term goal of this trial is to help promote widespread adoption of the hydrogen train in various North American regions, which could also more than offset the carbon footprint now generated by its diesel-trucked refueling and commuting across the Atlantic.
