Slashdot Mirror
Germany Unveils a Hydrogen-Powered Passenger Train (fortune.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The world's first CO2-emission-free train powered through hydrogen was unveiled this week in Germany. The Coradia iLint, created by French company Alstom, was presented at the Berlin InnoTrans trade show on Tuesday. The train's energy comes from combining hydrogen stored in tanks on the train with oxygen in the air. The energy is then stored in lithium-ion batteries. The train's only emissions are steam and condensed water. The train also has lower noise levels than diesel trains, emitting only the sound of its wheels on the track and any sounds from air resistance at even its highest speed of 140 kilometers per hour (about 87 miles per hour). The train has the ability to travel up to 800 kilometers (497 miles) and carry up to 300 passengers; it's the worldâ(TM)s first hydrogen passenger train that can regularly operate long journeys.
How was the hydrogen used in the train produced and delivered?
It's lower-efficiency anyway, thanks to separation and storage energy costs. You used clean energy? Great! You used 2,000MW of energy instead of 600MW, which means there were 1,400MW of coal energy that could have been clean energy but weren't because you wasted all that clean energy doing a bullshit hydrogen stunt!
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Surprise, surprise, the Germans had already thought about the objections that could muster the Slashdot crowd.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Read post above, second paragraph beginning with "Oh and why not just use the electricity itself to power the vehicle?" Basically, it would be a physical burden and materially pollutive to bring electricity itself onboard, when renewable & free electricity can be used to create a more portable fuel.
Conversion efficiency is not a big deal when you're using renewable sources; in those cases you're interested in capital investment efficiency (what you get out for dollar invested).
That's because wind or solar or tidal you don't capture simply goes away; the waste is 100% when you don't use it, so if you capture any of it, it's a win, so long as the money up front isn't too much.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.