Regional diesel trains in Germany LNVG replaced by the world's first trains with a 100% hydrogen engine from of the French company Alstom.
The train can travel 1,000 kilometers before it needs refuelling, meaning it won't need to be refueled until service ends at the end of the day, reports Good News Network.
The train will run between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremerwerde and Buxtehude in Lower Saxony.
The locomotives with diesel engines are still used in Germany and the USA on some regional lines. Because of this, passengers in carriages and stations are exposed to more harmful air pollutants, in particular nitrogen oxide, than at a busy intersection in the city.
In addition to the negative health effects, diesel locomotives have higher emission costs and travel at lower speeds.
Inside the Alstom train's fuel cells, hydrogen stored on the roof is combined with oxygen. As a result of the reaction, energy is produced and only water is formed.
“We will not buy any more diesel trains, in order to do even more to combat climate change,” Carmen Schwable, a spokesperson for LNVG, told Deutsche Welle. “We also are convinced that diesel trains will no longer be economically viable in future.”
The Alstom is negotiating the delivery of such trains to the US, as the country continues to use diesel locomotives due to the huge distances and expensive electrification of railway lines.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the development of the hydrogen sector will require minimization of H2 leaks, to maintain maximum climate benefits, because its interaction with other pollutants is approximately 11 times greater than the global warming potential of carbon.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, in the USA, the draft law on reducing inflation includes tax incentives for the production of green hydrogen at the lowest cost in the world at a price of $0.73 per kilogram.
