photo: Siemens/Siemens hydrogen locomotives
Siemens came with new updates on their project on the hydrogen-electricity locomotive. During the H2 Forum, Siemens stated that they started testing their hydrogen-powered locomotive. The main struggle now is the fuelling stations.
During the H2 Forum, Siemens came with a design for their hydrogen locomotive. The development of the locomotive started in the Autumn of 2020. The locomotive has a hydrogen tank as well as a battery. According to Albrecht Neumann, CEO Rolling Stock - Siemens Mobility, who represented Siemens, the customers struggle with the lack of fuelling and charging stations, but they run tests with DB.
The fuelling stations need to perform fast refuelling for the trains to be able to compete with diesel locomotives. Using Electrolysis, they can generate enough hydrogen for the service of the locomotives.
The hydrogen tanks are located at the top of the locomotives. They store the hydrogen in a gas form under pressure. For safety reasons, the tank must be covered, which makes some processes harder. Siemens does not develop the fuel cells but rather design the locomotives. According to their CEO, Siemens Mobility will outsource the development.
The reason they do not use hydrogen-diesel technology, but rather hydrogen-electro technology, is that they believe it is better for the customers. On the other hand, Siemens also believes that any hydrogen technology has a chance on the market.
The H2 Forum joins together companies and great minds to share vision on sustainable future. The forum is focused on using Hydrogen in different parts of everyday life, including rail transport. There will be more reports coming from H2 Forum soon since RailTarget is its medial partner.