Germany inaugurated this Wednesday (24) a railway line that will run entirely on hydrogen, a world first and a step towards decarbonizing rail transport, despite the difficulty of accessing this new technology.
A fleet of 14 trains, sold by the French group Alstom for the Lower Saxony region (north), will replace the current diesel locomotives to cover the 100 km of the line linking the cities of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde and Buxtehud.
“We are very proud to be able to commercially exploit this technology, this is something unprecedented in the world”, declared this Wednesday the president of Alstom, Henri Poupart-Lafarge.
Hydrogen trains are a prime way to reduce carbon emissions and replace diesel, which continues to power 20% of rail travel in Germany.
Alstom trains combine the hydrogen stored on board with the oxygen present in the air, thanks to a fuel cell, which produces the electricity needed to ensure the train’s traction.
The new fleet, which cost 93 million euros (R$473.1 million), will avoid generating 4,400 tonnes of CO2 every year, according to LNVG, which operates the network at a regional level.
RAIN OF ORDERS
Designed in the French town of Tarbes and assembled in Salzgitter, central Germany, these trains have been commercially tested since 2018, with two running regularly.
Alstom has already signed four contracts to deliver dozens of trains in Germany, France and Italy, and demand continues to grow.
In Germany alone, “between 2,500 and 3,000 diesel trains could be replaced by hydrogen trains”, Stefan Schrank, head of the project in Alstom, told AFP.
“By 2035, between 15 and 20% of the European market for regional routes will be able to run on hydrogen,” Alexandre Charpentier, a railway specialist at consultancy Roland Berger, told AFP.
Alstom’s competitors also entered this market. The German group Siemens presented in May a model for the railway company Deutsche Bahn, with a view to commissioning in 2024.
But in addition to the beautiful prospects, there are real barriers, warns the expert.
Not only trains are looking for hydrogen, but the entire transport sector, road and air, as well as the heavy industry — steel and chemical — are betting on this technology to reduce carbon emissions.
SCARCE RESOURCE
With the 2020 announcement of a €7 billion investment plan, Germany has the ambition to lead in hydrogen technology within a decade.
However, it lacks the necessary infrastructure for production or transport, which will require colossal investments.
On the other hand, hydrogen is not necessarily carbon-free. Only green hydrogen, made from renewable energy, is considered sustainable.
At the same time, there are other more common manufacturing methods, but which emit greenhouse gases as they are based on fossil fuels.
Proof of the scarcity of the product is that the Lower Saxony line will initially use hydrogen resulting from the activity of other industries, such as chemicals.
The French research institute IFP, which specializes in energy issues, explains that currently hydrogen “comes 95% from the transformation of fossil fuels”, and almost half comes from the transformation of natural gas.
A double problem, due to the pollution caused by the use of gas, and the difficulties in supplying this fossil raw material in Europe, largely dependent on Russian gas, which became a political weapon with the War in Ukraine.
“Political decisions must prioritize which sector will or will not produce hydrogen”, indicated the consultant Charpentier.
In addition, Germany will have to buy this resource abroad to supply its needs. On Tuesday (23), Berlin signed an agreement with Toronto to import renewable hydrogen produced in Canada from 2025.
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