In an effort to reduce both noise and environmental pollution, the Indian Railways on Saturday announced to introduce the country’s first hydrogen-fuelled train. India will be the third country to experiment on this alternate fuel after Germany and Poland, which are conducting trial runs.
Initially, the hydrogen fuel-based technology will be introduced on the 89-km long Sonipat-Jind route. The Railways has also floated tenders for retrofitting the existing DEMU rakes into green fuel-based trains.
A Railway Ministry spokesperson said the transporter as part of the National Hydrogen Energy Mission has taken a leap forward in the development of hydrogen fuel cell-based power movement to kick off the concept of Hydrogen Mobility in the country.
The official said the loco pilot of the locomotive will not face any problem as there will be no change in the driving console.
“Initially, two DEMU rakes will be converted, and later two hybrid narrow gauge locos will be converted,” said a Railway official.
He said railways had invited bids for hydrogen fuel cell-based technology by retrofitting DEMU in the 89 km Sonipat-Jind Section of Northern Railway.
He explained that the retrofitting of diesel-powered DEMU and converting it into the hydrogen fuel-powered train set will not only save costs to the tune of Rs 2.3 crore annually by converting from diesel to hydrogen but also save the carbon footprint (NO2) of 11.12-kilo tons per annum and particulate matter of 0.72-kilotons per annum.
“After conversion, the train will run on hydrogen fuel, the greenest mode of transport as hydrogen can be generated by electrolysing the water from solar energy,” he said.
The official said after the successful implementation of this pilot project, all the rolling stock which will operate on diesel fuel after electrification can be planned to be run on hydrogen fuel.
Another Railway Ministry official said as a pilot project, the hydrogen-powered passenger train would be operational in the Northern zone.
The official said for the first time, two motor coaches with 1,400 horsepower (HP) each would haul the 10-coach hydrogen-powered passenger train.
He said the train would be running through a push-pull method using two motor coaches being retrofitted with hydrogen kits.