A review of hydrogen technologies and engineering solutions for railway vehicle design and operations

Abstract

Interest in hydrogen-powered rail vehicles has gradually increased worldwide over recent decades due to the global pressure on reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, technology availability, and multiple options of power supply. In the past, research and development have been primarily focusing on light rail and regional trains, but the interest in hydrogen-powered freight and heavy haul trains is also growing. The review shows that some technical feasibility has been demonstrated from the research and experiments on proof-of-concept designs. Several rail vehicles powered by hydrogen either are currently operating or are the subject of experimental programmes. The paper identifies that fuel cell technology is well developed and has obvious application in providing electrical traction power, while hydrogen combustion in traditional IC engines and gas turbines is not yet well developed. The need for on-board energy storage is discussed along with the benefits of energy management and control systems.

Analysis of hydrogen-powered propulsion system alternatives for diesel-electric regional trains

“…With regard to vehicles conversion/retrofit to their hydrogen-powered counterpart, selecting suitable technology is a crucial step in the vehicle powertrain design process. There are several types of FCs, differing in start-up time, efficiency, operating temperature, materials used for their manufacture, costs, etc., with detailed overview and comparison of different FC technologies provided by Bagotsky et al (2015), Siddiqui andDincer (2019), andSun et al (2021). In general, the polymer electrolyte membrane (or proton-exchange membrane) fuel cell (PEMFC) is the most commonly utilized FC technology, due to numerous advantages over other FC types, reflected in relatively short start-up and shutdown time, and low operating temperature (80 • C).…”

“…They are mainly employed in stationary power and heat generation systems (Chen et al, 2016). Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are high-temperature FCs (800-1000 • C), which allows for high power output (up to 2 MW) with high efficiency of 60%, but also causes low performance at lower temperatures, requires long start-up time, higher costs of materials, and sophisticated design and the assembly (Sun et al, 2021). Molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) are another high-temperature FCs (600-650 • C), offering high output power (up to 3 MW), utilized mainly in stationary power generation systems (US Department of Energy, 2021).…”

“…Molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) are another high-temperature FCs (600-650 • C), offering high output power (up to 3 MW), utilized mainly in stationary power generation systems (US Department of Energy, 2021). Considering the applicability to the railway sector, low-temperature PEMFC fits best to non-permanent demand cycles, and applications like light rail vehicles, commuter and regional trains, shunt/switch and underground mine locomotives, while high-temperature SOFC has been seen as a promising technology for freight or heavy haul locomotives, given their long operation time and steady duty cycles (Barbosa, 2019;Sun et al, 2021).…”

“…Fuel cells (FC) are a dominant technology for onboard power generation in hydrogen-related railway applications. FCs offer numerous advantages compared to internal combustion engines (ICE), summoned primarily in high efficiency, quiet and emission-free operations at the point of use, with water vapor and heat as the only products (Sun et al, 2021). However, their main drawback is the slow dynamic response, which requires vehicle hybridization with an energy storage system (ESS) and accompanying energy management and control strategy (EMCS), which would cover power fluctuations and allow for the recuperation of braking energy (Siddiqui and Dincer, 2019).…”

Analysis of the selection of the auxiliary drive system for a special purpose hybrid rail vehicle

“…It is an environmentally friendly solution due to its usage having close to zero emissivity. Contrary to the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, where the combustion products, in addition to steam and heat of combustion, include such harmful compounds as: CO 2 , CO, HC, NO x as well as particulate matter (PM) [4,17], the combustion of hydrogen result in the production of water vapor [26,27] and when the temperature is high enough also the formation of NO x compounds. Hydrogen can also be used in fuel cells, the so-called Fuel Cell Hydrogen (FCH) [5,24].…”