Indian Railways has finalised specifications of its first–ever hydrogen train; and completed procurement of components. The Integral Coach Factory at Chennai will be the executing unit for the prototype. The on-ground infrastructure to carry out hydrogen re-filling is being developed at Jind in Haryana.
If the scheduled January 2025 trials are successful, the Railways plan the first commercial launch of the train in March or “next fiscal onwards”. At least eight routes or sections are under consideration at the moment.
According to a senior official, this train will be amongst the most powerful in the world with an engine capacity of 2400 kw; and also the longest with 10 coaches, against the previously planned six coaches.
The train would have a storage capacity of 3000 kgs (of hydrogen), also making it one of the biggest installations globally. Train speed is expected “at 140 km/hr, at least” - at par with global standards.
“This (hydrogen train) is being developed indigenously based on specifications cleared by the RDSO (Research Designs and Standard Organisation) and these are first of their type,” the official told businessline.
While hydrogen trains will initially have a higher cost of operation – which works out at ₹140 per km; the carbon dioxide emission reduction is expected to be “as high as a few 100 cars”.
Retro-fitting
Conventional diesel-powered driving power cars (also called DPCs), would be converted into hydrogen fuel cell-powered DPCs. The conversion will take place on 1200 kw DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) into a hydrogen fuel cell-based distributed power rolling stock.
According to the official, all components like fuel cells, batteries, cooling systems, hydrogen cylinders etc have been procured, tested and cleared internally. “We are in advanced stages of execution,” the person in the know said. Trial runs are scheduled between Jind and Sonipat in Haryana (under Northern Railway).
System integration unit battery and two unit fuel synchronisation tests have been successfully done; and shell designs have been approved, the official added. German certification major TUV-SUD, Germany, have been roped in as third party safety auditors, including for on-board hydrogen safety approval.
On an average the cost of developing each trainset (initially of six coaches) works out to be ₹80 crore. Some 35-odd trainsets have been planned in the first phase. Additional cost will be incurred towards putting in place the ground infrastructure of ₹70 crore in various heritage and hill routes.
Refuelling
The on-ground re-filling structure would include hydrogen production-storage-dispensation facilities at the Jind station, with a capacity of 3000 kg. Around 430 kg of green hydrogen will be produced per day at the Jind facility by GreenH Electrolysis.
Globally, hydrogen trains are said to have speeds of 140 km/hr-odd, and can travel up to 1000 km without refuelling. Refuelling time is around 20 minutes or so depending on train-maker and available facilities.
Incidentally, the world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train, built by Alstom in Salzgitter, Germany, has a range of 1,000 km and can carry up to 300 passengers.