On 19 September, Alstom announced that it had completed the world’s first journey with a shunting locomotive that had been converted from diesel to hydrogen drive.
The journey took place in Salzgitter, Germany, where Alstom is developing the technique for existing locomotives together with VPS Verkehrsbetriebe Peine-Salzgitter GmbH (VPS, subsidiary of Salzgitter AG) and other partners.
The city of Salzgitter is supporting the project, contributing funding totalling 1.5 million euros from the 50 million euros in structural aid that the city received from Lower Saxony state.
Alstom sees this project as modernisation work, and as a “milestone in a joint project for the decarbonisation of shunting traffic”.
Once converted, the vehicle engine is powered by direct combustion of hydrogen, with no carbon dioxide emissions.
Alstom will now run an industrial test operation at the Salzgitter Group’s steel-producing companies, which it expects to run until next month. This will provide important insights into how suitable this technology will be for everyday use.
Alstom sees great potential in diesel-to-hydrogen conversion. VPS operates 42 locomotives for the transport of ore and coal, pig iron and steel products, and there are around 1,000 diesel shunting locomotives operating in Germany and around 4,000 across Europe.
A diesel shunting loco’s average service life is 50 to 70 years, during which it emits around 150 tonnes of CO2 per year. Therefore, a hydrogen-driven shunting loco will save up to 3,000 tonnes of CO2 over a remaining service life of 15 to 20 years. This is the equivalent of the emissions of up to 650 cars.
François Muller, Vice President Services for Central and Northern Europe at Alstom, described this as a “particularly worthwhile option in shunting traffic” because the vehicles have a long service life.”
Salzgitter has a ‘Hydrogen Campus’, which is developing technology for factory transformation, green hydrogen and hydrogen storage.
Several other companies are also developing hydrogen power for use on the railway, including Stadler and Siemens.
“Many good projects have been supported and implemented with the structural aid funds from the state of Lower Saxony. Primary schools and day-care centres have been built, residential buildings are being renovated, and hydrogen campus projects have been funded. The conversion of the shunting locomotive to a hydrogen drive is one of them and is of course something very special with a world premiere. Here, the state’s funding was well invested in innovation, CO2 savings and climate protection. The climate protection potential and the impact of this conversion are huge: imitation is encouraged.”
Astrid Paus, Head of Department at the Braunschweig Regional Development Office
Responses
The burning of hydrogen is not all that clean as current commercial production of hydrogen uses a lot of power to extract it from ammonia, which does produce some greenhouse gases. There is debate over how clear it actually when produced in the way.