Over the past two years, Ballard has supplied CPKC with 20 fuel cell engines for use in three different types of locomotives, with combined fuel cell power of 4MW. These locomotives have been undergoing field testing in 2022 and early 2023 with successful tests, proving the capabilities of Ballard’s hydrogen fuel cell technology in locomotive applications.
Further development on range across temperature variations, heavy hauling, fine tuning auxiliary load to avoid waste, increased number of hours on current and additional units will support continued technological evolution.
The success of these trials, combined with the need to achieve CPKC’s emissions goals, has resulted in the significant expansion of the original hydrogen locomotive program, according to Ballard.
“Our hydrogen locomotive program has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from locomotive operations, supporting the transition to a lower-carbon future in the freight rail sector,” said Dr Kyle Mulligan, AVP of operations technology. “We are excited to expand development of these pioneering zero-emission locomotives with collaborators like Ballard.”
“We are thrilled to support our partner, CPKC, as they expand their development of fuel cell-powered locomotives to decarbonize critical transportation routes,” added Seungsoo Jung, Ballard’s vice president of rail & emerging markets. “Our teams have been working hand-in-hand to ensure success of this program and we are excited for the future with CPKC to help scale their growing hydrogen fleet.”