It’s a world premiere, which will be on view from Wednesday on the rail exhibition InnoTrans in Berlin: a passenger train with hydrogen propulsion. From 2017 it should move in Germany. Also Baden-Württemberg wants to buy trains – once they are ready for practical application.
Rail transport without diesel fumes and without the danger of overhead line damage, strain the commuters nervous – this utopia will become reality with hydrogen-powered trains. “ILint” is the first model in the world that works with fuel cell technology, and the manufacturer Alstom will present at the fair InnoTrans in Berlin.
“ILint” moves up to 140 kilometres per hour and can therefore be run only in local transport. From the end of next year, will initially roll through Niedersachsen two copies. Before the train, although it needs the approval procedure of the Federal Railway Authority exist.
What matters is how hydrogen is made
Outwardly, the trains with fuel technology just like the diesel engines. But on the roof carry the hydrogen tank and the fuel-cell response in the hydrogen and oxygen to form water. This chemical process produces energy in the form of electricity.
Gases not expelled from the so-operated trains. How environmentally friendly they are, but also depends on how their energy supplier, so the hydrogen is produced: from nuclear power, natural gas to coal power is there anything imaginable.