First presented at InnoTrans 2016 in Berlin, 14 of Alstom's hydrogen-powered locomotive will operate under the governance of Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LGVN) in Bremervörde, Lower Saxony, Germany.
Other project partners are the Elbe-Weser railways and transport company (evb) and the gas and engineering company Linde.
The Alstom trains have an operational range of 1,000km (620 miles) and will be supplied by Linde's hydrogen refuelling station. A later hydrogen production on site by means of electrolysis and regeneratively generated electricity is planned; corresponding expansion areas are available.
The Linde facility in Bremervörde contains 64 500-bar high-pressure storage tanks with a total capacity of 1,800kg (3,900lbs), six hydrogen compressors and two fuel pumps. The use of hydrogen as a fuel for trains reduces the burden on the environment, as 1kg of hydrogen replaces approximately 4.5l of diesel fuel.
The project and facility is funded by the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport as part of the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Programme. The federal government is contributing $8.4m (US$8.36m)to the costs of the vehicles and $4.3m (US$4.28m) to the costs of the filling station. The funding directive is coordinated by NOW GmbH and implemented by Project Management Jülich (PtJ).
“Emission free mobility is one of the most important goals for ensuring a sustainable future and Alstom has a clear ambition to become the world leader in alternative propulsion systems for rail," said Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO and chairman of the board of Alstom. "The world’s first hydrogen train, the Coradia iLint, demonstrates our clear commitment to green mobility combined with state-of-the-art technology. We are very proud to bring this technology into series operation as part of a world premiere, together with our great partners.”
Specifically developed for use on non-electrified lines, the trains will travel on ebv's network at speeds ranging from 80km/h (50mph) to 120km/h (74mph), with a maximum speed of 140 km/h (87mph). Alstom say its technological capabilities in clean energy conversion, flexible energy storage and intelligent management of motive power and available energy are ideal for quiet, emission-free travel.
Alstom currently has four contracts for hydrogen fuel cell powered regional trains. Two are in Germany, the first for 14 Coradia iLint trains in the region of Lower Saxony, and the second for 27 Coradia iLint trains in the Frankfurt metropolitan area. The third contract comes from Italy where Alstom is building 6 Coradia Stream hydrogen trains in the region of Lombardy – with the option for 8 more, while the fourth is in France for 12 Coradia Polyvalent hydrogen trains shared across four different French regions.