By P Gosselin
Germany’s Blackout News here reports the latest example of what happens when green energy fantasies clash with reality, in this case trains powered by hydrogen.
Symbol image. Source: Alstom press release here.
According to theAccording to the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), the hydrogen trains on the Taunusbahn have been temporarily taken out of service and diesel locomotives are being used again. The hydrogen locomotives are manufactured by Alstom and are reported to have been “fault-prone” and are currently being improved. (RMV), the hydrogen trains on the Taunusbahn have been temporarily taken out of service and diesel locomotives are being used again. The hydrogen locomotives are manufactured by Alstom and are reported to have been “fault-prone” and are currently being improved.
“The project was launched in December 2022 with great expectations. The plan was to deploy the world’s largest fleet of hydrogen trains on the Taunusbahn. But problems arose early on,” reports Blackout News. “Even at the start, Alstom was unable to deliver the promised number of vehicles. Technical defects became more frequent in the following months.”
RMV was thus forced to put the diesel locomotives back in service, but calls the measure “a temporary solution until the end of 2025.” The hydrogen powered operation remains the the overall aim. Alstom is currently overhauling the hydrogen trains to make them ready for long-term, reliable operation.
By returning to the diesel trains, RMV is focusing on reliability while hoping hydrogen will improve enough to be put back in service by the end of this year. “This measure shows that sustainable technologies continue to pose challenges,” Blackout News summarizes.
While green energies can be used in a number of applications, they are proving to be a major technological challenge in the transport sector.
RMV say it “is focusing on reliability”, which speaks for itself, but what about the cost? The ERoI of hydrogen is pretty poor, ~30% if used in an ICE context. This is just another attempt at trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist, at enormous and likely wasted cost.
Wow! Who could have imagined that?
Rest assured insurance underwriters will be up to the task-
Insurance company WARNS auto industry over EV fires | MGUY Australia
I got a dumb question. In this country you are not allowed to transport highly flammable liquids in long tunnels. How do you reconcile that safety measure with hydrogen fuel for a train? Are these trains restricted to routes that don’t go through long tunnels?
It’s really rather simple. Just mix the hydrogen with enough carbon atoms to make a more stable compound; preferably a liquid. Voila, you’ve got a safe way to transport and utilize hydrogen!
This is similar to the best method for making plants more nutritious and edible by having them processed by large, tasty vegetarians; preferably the four legged kind!
I think the better method is combine the H2 with O2 and not only do you have a very stable, non flammable molecule but if there ever was a fire in the tunnel, you could use it to put out the fire. Just a thought.
Hydrogen Peroxide? Isn’t that the juice that the Nazis gave up on for WW II U-boats for being too, ummm, temperamental?
They used it in their deeply alarming rocket fighters too, and managed to kill quite a number of their own pilots!
Very, in high concentrations.
(For your home use it often comes in a 3% solution.)
MIT has reportedly developed a technology, akin to photosynthesis, that combines CO2 and H20 to make methane using sunlight.
Unknown if it is scalable to industrial application.
Conceptually, running a methane fuel cell in reverse using electricity from a solar cell will do it, but the difficulty will be separating, concentrating and collecting methane.
😉
I’m remembering a wag saying that is someone suggested driving around in close proximity to several gallons of a highly flammable liquid whose vapour can explode they’d be laughed at. :-o)
Saving the planet trumps all the principles and laws of physics, economics and Human wellbeing.
Obviously the Germans are lacking in Climastrological fervor! True believers would have blown up the diesel engines, like the libtard British politicians did their with retired coal plants. It is a little concerning that the British ruling classes are showing more zealotry than the Germans, but that is a discussion for another day!
A question for those in the UK; when referring to British politicians should libtard be capitalized?
No no ! Decapitated.
Well they did shut down their last nuclear reactor. You don’t just start those things back up. Stellantis did bulldoze their Chrysler plants in both America and Canada.
Nope. Stellantis has reopened plants closed for a short time, low sales over winter not unusual or is retooling for newer model
https://www.automotivedive.com/news/stellanitis-commits-reopening-belvidere-assembly-uaw-build-new-truck-2027/738135/
I think not, “libtard” is a common noun like “idiot”.
Perhaps the Germans might entertain the Draxtrain? Fueled by woodchips…
Is that Thomas the Tank Engines grampa? You might want to consider the “Inyo,” that still runs from Carson City up to the mines around Virginia City. For some reason it’s not running this winter so it might be available!
Stephenson’s rocket.
Why do they want reliability to be temporary? And how many people are they willing to kill when these hydrogen powered clattertraps start burning, especially in a tunnel in a major city?
Hydrogen fires, while extremely dangerous are child’s play compared to lithium battery fires.
Hydrogen fires are one and done type, over quickly. Also less toxic.
Plenty of toxic smoke from burning loco and carriages, lots of plastics and pretty sure lithium ion battery packs in each. Multiple battery fires instead of just one. Ecological disaster, just as the greenunistas want. Then they can screech “See!!!! Evil humans destroying the climate!!!REEEEEEEEEE”.
The term “burning” technically applies to the process but most people would note it as “exploding”. It would be gone very fast.
There would be a BIG bang, then a lot of fire, pretty sure those trains also have Lithium Ion battery packs along with piles of toxic plastics in large amounts. Add to that structural collapse in a tunnel or with buildings in close proximity on both sides of tracks in a city. In open country it would not quite so bad, lots of people killed, train destroyed, track bed heavily damaged. No biggie to the greenunistas, more dead people being their primary goal.
…or until a technological miracle happens. 😉
Seems like UK is suffering from the worlds worst “climate derangement syndrome”
Just another shoot – ready – aim hoping that they’ll hit the target one day.
They’d have to find a target first, and they don’t even know what kind of target to look for, let alone whether it exists. But Hansen and Greta said so, right there in the updated Grimms Fairy Tales.
Hydrogen as a fuel is sustainable? Oh which planet?
The Sun. …
Duuuuuh…..the train in picture appears to be electric……just use electric trains powered from overhead lines….and reopen the nuke power plants.
It’s a symbolic picture,
A correct one of the H2 train you find in the text here
https://www.alstom.com/press-releases-news/2023/10/fnm-and-alstom-present-italys-first-hydrogen-powered-train#
The brochure you provided points out that the train has a max range of 600 Kilometers, or about 300 miles, when it has to be refuelled. Diesel electric trains have a typical range of about 2,000 miles (~4,000 kilometers) before refueling is required. The brochure does not say where the hydrogen comes from, how many refueling stations are required for the line and how the compressed hydrogen is delivered to the stations. Note that if by semi-truck, about 12 trucks carrying compressed hydrogen will be required to deliver to each station as much energy as could delivered by a single gasoline or diesel tanker. If delivered by pipeline, how much electricity is consumed in compressing the gas for use at the station and how much is consumed in transferring the gas to the train? Answer – a lot. Most hydrogen in industry comes from “reforming” natural gas producing hydrogen and carbon dioxide in about the same ratio as carbon dioxide and water vapor are produced when simply burning thel gas. That’s OK if the hydrogen is needed for some essential industrial purpose but as a fuel, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. These trains are simply a very expensive thermodynamically inefficient external combustion machines.
I agree competely with your words.
Of course. But this service is local inter urban short range. It’s only a 45km line from Frankfurt
Wait, so you mean unicorn farts and fairy dust weren’t available? Unacceptable!
Am I missing something with regards to the use of hydrogen in vehicles (of any sort)? Is it right that the emission from a hydrogen vehicle are mostly water vapour, which is supposedly worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas?
The advantage of water vapour is, it isn’t CO2 😀
Yeahbut….
Since water vapour is 98% of greenhouse gases, a little more won’t make any difference. Obviously any amount of CO2 will make a huge difference because it’s only 2% of greenhouse gases. At least in Climate Scientology!
History has a number of good lessons we should all remember when it comes to very volatile gasses.
Of all the people in the world, you would have thought Germany’s experience with hydrogen gas and transport system failures would have been a lesson they would never forget.
I rather like the idea of mixing hydrogen with carbon to produce a very much more stable fuel, well tried and tested even the majority of German homes use it too, without any issues, (we can ignore the occasional lost supply from Russia).
CH4 is such a great option, if you have a small compressor and suitable ICE adapted vehicle you can even refuel at home. The authorities don’t want to encourage that, sadly….
You can be sure that Germany is not able at all to draw consequences from what lesson ever, it seems to be heritable, at least for politicians.
Who knew hydrogen could be an unreliable fuel for transport?
So, what exactly are thee problems? This is a superficial report.