Germany goes greener with world’s first hydrogen-powered trains

Germany launched on Monday the world’s first hydrogen-powered trains, however, it is a bit expensive than the traditional diesel trains but also more eco-friendlier than them.

The trains have been manufactured by a locomotive company Alstom. Project manager Stefan Schrank said, “Buying a hydrogen train is somewhat more expensive than a diesel train, but it is cheaper to run.”

According to Futurism, the new trains transport passengers along 100km of track, travelling up to 1,000km on a single hydrogen tank and reaching speeds up to 140kmh. The trains will run on a route between the towns and cities of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervoerde and Buxtehude in northern Germany. At Bremervoerde, the trains will be refueled with hydrogen, wrote The Guardian.

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“The world’s first hydrogen train is entering into commercial service and is ready for serial production,” Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge expressed.

The trains are equipped with fuel cells that generate electricity by a combination of hydrogen and oxygen, leaving water and steam as the only emissions and make very little noise. The extra energy is stored in the lithium-ion batteries on board the train.

For the future, the company plans to provide 14 more of these zero-emissions trains to Lower Saxony state by the year 2021. Alstom claimed that other countries are also looking forward to welcome the technology including Denmark, Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Norway, and the Netherlands. Also, the France government has plans to launch the first hydrogen train by 2022, as per Daily Mail.