Webinar: Hydrogen, Batteries or Electrification? ERCI Looks at Rail's Hard-to-Abate Routes

RAILTARGET brings you updates from the ERCI 'Hydrogen Rail: Myth or Reality?' webinar. Experts from across Europe examine where hydrogen could realistically fit into rail decarbonisation, from government policy and infrastructure to rolling stock, retrofits and the economics behind building an entire hydrogen ecosystem.

11:00 The webinar opens with Lutz from Berlin Partner for Business and Technology, who introduces the European Railway Clusters Initiative (ERCI). The network currently brings together 18 innovation-driven railway clusters across 17 European countries and works mainly with SMEs, while also connecting larger manufacturers, suppliers, research organisations and other industry partners.

He talks about ERCI's work on international market access, partner matchmaking and innovation, including its task force on green and sustainable mobility, before handing over to Katherine Applebee from Rail Forum in the UK.

Applebee says the aim of the session is not just to promote hydrogen, but to ask where it actually works in rail. The webinar will look at the issue from four sides: policy, rolling stock, infrastructure and retrofit, followed by a wider discussion with participants.

11:10 Helen Simpson, founder of Inspired Consulting and former Innovation and Projects Director at Porterbrook, opens the technical discussion. She draws on her work with the UK's HydroFLEX train, a 60-year-old shunting locomotive converted to hydrogen fuel-cell operation, and a project assessing the transport of hydrogen containers by rail.

Simpson starts with the basic decarbonisation problem. Electrification remains the obvious solution for busy, high-speed or high-power routes, but it requires major capital investment. Diesel already has mature infrastructure behind it, but does not meet long-term net-zero targets. Batteries are improving quickly, yet their range and charging requirements still limit where they can be used.

That leaves hydrogen as one possible answer for non-electrified routes where conventional electrification or batteries are difficult to justify.

At the same time, she stresses that hydrogen comes with challenges. It has a low volumetric energy density, requires compression or liquefaction for transport, and brings new safety considerations around leaks, storage and refuelling. Fuel availability, price and the still-developing regulatory framework also remain important obstacles.

11:20 Simpson says that the more interesting opportunity may lie beyond the train itself. Renewable electricity production is variable, while national grids are increasingly constrained by where power can be generated and consumed. Hydrogen could provide a way to store energy, move it elsewhere and use it later.

Rail could become both a reliable hydrogen customer and part of its distribution network. Trains operate predictable duty cycles and could provide hydrogen producers with long-term, stable demand. Simpson gives an example of about 500 kg of hydrogen per train per day over around 20 years, which could help underpin investment in new production sites.

Rail also already moves large volumes of dangerous goods and has freight links to ports and industrial centres. Her argument is that the rail and energy sectors should not develop hydrogen strategies separately. The strongest business case could come from treating them as one system. For passengers, she adds, the technology should ultimately be invisible: they simply want a reliable train with good facilities that arrives when expected.

11:30 Lorenzo Mir Ferah from Sener takes the discussion into government policy, using two projects as examples: a study of the FICO freight railway corridor in Brazil, promoted by the World Bank, and the ongoing Impulso project in Spain.

The Spanish project brings together Sener, Talgo, Repsol and technology partners, with the involvement of infrastructure manager Adif. Its purpose is to understand whether hydrogen could replace diesel on selected non-electrified lines.

Lorenzo says governments are increasingly moving away from asking whether a hydrogen train can technically operate. That question is already being answered by projects across Europe. Instead, governments need to know whether hydrogen is the right investment for a particular corridor compared with electrification, batteries or other fuels.

That means looking at far more than the rolling stock. Traffic demand, gradients, train weight and frequency have to be considered alongside hydrogen production, storage, distribution, refuelling and future growth.

11:40 The Brazilian study followed five questions, beginning with railway demand rather than the fuel itself. Lorenzo explains that hydrogen consumption cannot be calculated meaningfully without understanding how the railway will operate. From there, planners have to examine the wider energy ecosystem, infrastructure requirements, long-term economics and regulation.

One finding from Brazil was particularly interesting. Despite the country's large bioethanol industry, the assessment found that renewable hydrogen backed by green power purchase agreements offered the strongest long-term pathway for the corridor studied. He repeatedly returns to regulation as one of the main risks. Hydrogen brings requirements around safety, hazardous materials, storage, certification, permitting and emergency response. Technology can develop faster than these rules, so regulatory readiness can become just as important as technical readiness.

His conclusion is that the hydrogen train may be the most visible part of the project, but it is only one component. Governments must evaluate the complete corridor ecosystem: transport, energy, infrastructure, economics and policy.

11:50 Guido Piccoli then turns to the infrastructure question, drawing on experience from the hydrogen rail programme in Val Camonica, northern Italy. The 100-km regional railway serves a mountainous area where conventional electrification would require major work, including interventions in old tunnels. The project chose hydrogen as an alternative to diesel.

The programme is not just about buying trains. It includes 14 hydrogen-powered trains, three hydrogen production sites, a dedicated depot and plans to create wider demand through hydrogen buses. Piccoli points to the timeline as an important lesson. The first political decision came in 2020, followed by feasibility work, funding, infrastructure development, testing and regulatory approvals, with operation expected in 2027.

That seven-year process shows that hydrogen rail is not primarily being held back by whether a train can move. Permitting, authorisation, safety rules and public acceptance can take much longer. Local opposition also became part of the process, particularly around hydrogen use near towns, stations and tunnels. Piccoli says future projects need much stronger communication with communities from the start.

12:00 Scalability is the bigger challenge, Piccoli continues. A railway can become an anchor customer for hydrogen production, but in most cases rail demand alone will not justify an entire hydrogen infrastructure. Projects need to create a broader "hydrogen valley", combining railway demand with buses, industry or other users.

Green hydrogen supply is still not sufficiently stable in many markets, while both capital and operating costs remain difficult to predict. Piccoli says that if green hydrogen is not immediately available, it may make sense to begin building hydrogen demand first and decarbonise the supply as renewable production grows.

He also warns against treating hydrogen as the answer for every non-electrified railway. On shorter routes, battery trains or partial electrification may already provide a simpler solution. The real question, he says, is where hydrogen solves a hard-to-abate problem that other technologies cannot address economically.

12:10 Antonio Helier, President of SITAV, presents another possible entry point for hydrogen: shunting locomotives. Rather than purchasing entirely new vehicles, SITAV is working with deep reconstruction of existing locomotives. The original frame and bogies are retained, while the locomotive is otherwise rebuilt with new systems and technology.

Its prototype uses a hydrogen fuel-cell and battery hybrid system. The fuel cell supplies the continuous energy demand, while the battery covers power peaks and can recover energy during braking. SITAV also opted for metal-hydride hydrogen storage operating at around 35 bar, which is lower than conventional high-pressure hydrogen systems.

Helier says that shunting is particularly suitable for early hydrogen deployment. Yards and ports are often not electrified because overhead wires interfere with cranes and other equipment. Locomotives operate at low speeds but require short bursts of high power to move wagons.

Ports are also closed, controlled environments where rail, road and maritime logistics meet, potentially making them useful starting points for hydrogen infrastructure.

12:20 Piccoli says electrification remains more energy-efficient wherever it is practical. Hydrogen makes most sense on routes and applications that are genuinely difficult to decarbonise by other means.

The speakers also discuss cost. Lorenzo notes that hydrogen may still struggle to compete if the assessment looks only at direct operating expenses. Social and environmental benefits must form part of the cost-benefit analysis.

Safety is another question. The panel agrees that hydrogen introduces different risks, but not necessarily unmanageable ones. Helier says that low-pressure storage and controlled environments can reduce some risks, while Simpson points out that operators simply need the right procedures, training and safety management.

12:30 The final questions return to scale and public policy. The panel argues that isolated demonstration projects are no longer enough. Europe already has evidence that hydrogen trains can operate. The next step is deciding where governments want hydrogen to become part of a wider transport and energy strategy, providing enough certainty for manufacturers, infrastructure owners and hydrogen producers to invest.

Piccoli says industrial decarbonisation is likely to create much larger hydrogen demand than transport alone. Rail could then become another user within the same regional ecosystem rather than carrying the entire business case.

The speakers agree that hydrogen can make sense where electrification and batteries do not, but only if the fuel supply, infrastructure, regulation and economics are developed together.

This concludes the ERCI webinar Hydrogen Rail: Myth or Reality? Thank you for tuning in with RAILTARGET for the updates.