Trains - Hydrail
It's clean, economical and plentiful. What is it? It's water, the key component in hydrogen power. Hydrogen and oxygen combine to create an electrical current that has the potential to provide enough power to light up a building. So, why not harness the same energy to run a train?
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Hydrogen
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Benefits of Hydrogen Trains
Trains have been for generations the main transport for crucial goods. Tracks spanned the landscape and during WWI and WWII, helped to mobilize nations. Although the glory days of trains have faded there is a new resurgence of interest in trains, especially those powered by hydrogen. This interest is sweeping the world. The potential for hydrogen power is largely untapped, with only a handful of vehicles and contrivances currently on the market. Hydrogen trains, or hydrail as some are calling it, have the potential to provide benefits to the environment and, once setup, are economical to operate.
The Hydrogen Train, Hop on Board
Farsighted entities from local governments to nations have been exploring the potential of hydrogen trains. For example, in North Carolina, there is a campaign to fund and promote the use of hydrogen trains. The Department of Commerce is sponsoring an initiative to make the technology accessible and feasible. In Denmark, there is a full-scale push to establish a working hydrogen train system as part of their efforts to convert to renewable fuels. The Danes are aggressively promoting the development of the hydrail system, with an eye on being the first in Europe to do so. The Railway Technical Research Institute is also racing ahead with aggressive plans to put a hydrogen fuel cell train on the tracks by 2010.
Why Not, Indeed?
Not only are hydrogen trains more environmentally friendly than others, the byproduct is water, and there are other practical reasons to pursue this technology for trains.
- Hydrogen is renewable
- Reduces the need for fossil fuels
- Economical
Hydrogen will allow communities to be independent from foreign fuels. The ability to manufacture and utilize available resources is practical on many levels, socially, economically and politically.
Socially, there can be a great sense of pride knowing that that a community is free from the dependence inherent in fossil fuels, and in knowing that the community is resourceful and proactive in addressing the eminent issues of global warming and diminishing resources.
Economically, entities that invest now in the technologies to manufacture and to establish the infrastructure for hydrogen trains, will realize savings on fuel costs for generations.
Politically, reducing dependence on foreign oil will go a long way to diminishing the conflict inherent in the manufacture and distribution of fossil fuels. Also, offering clean air to constituents is a popular platform for many politicians.
The first hydrogen trains in the hydrail industry have been used successfully in mining operations. Since hydrail wouldn't need a vast hydrogen infrastructure built around it as is required of the automotive industry, hydrogen-powered trains make sense.
Japan is also moving forward in building and promoting commuter hydrogen trains. Of note is East Japan Railway (JR East), which has just demonstrated the world's first commuter hydrogen hybrid train. This train will replace both diesel and electric trains in the area which travel to remote regions. The JR East New Energy Train boasts two 65kw PEM fuel cells and two 95kw electric motors. Regenerative braking recharges the lithium-ion battery pack.
JR East has been competing with Tokyo's Railway Technical Research
Institute (RTRI) for bringing Japan's first hydrogen commuter train to
market. The New Energy Train is supposed to go live for commuters in the
second quarter of 2007.
Isn't it time you got started and hopped aboard the hydrogen train? If not now, you'll be hopping aboard just a few years from now.
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