4 ms·
The total number of individual plants to replace is small (usually one or two per train, some tens of thousands across North America), and some existing propane
by retrac 5y ago
The total number of individual plants to replace is small (usually one or two per train, some tens of thousands across North America), and some existing propane/natural gas fired turbine-electric trains are probably suitable to retrofit. The US rail grid is almost entirely unelectrified, and electrification of long rural routes is both a large project and has high upfront costs, especially relative to the low utilization of some routes. Basically, hydrogen would be attractive for trains in North America for the same reason why most trains in North America are diesel, not electric.
I suspect the answer for this niche is probably synthetic diesel though, as with synthetic jet fuel. If you already have the hydrogen, fixing it to some carbon is a relatively simple additional step.
- DoingIsLearning 5y ago> The US rail grid is almost entirely unelectrified Now the GP comment makes sense. I am certainly surprised but at least now it makes some sense.
- nerdponx 5y agoAlso, I think they were talking about freight trains, not passenger trains. Is rail freight powered by electric locomotives anywhere in the world?
- retrac 5y agoRight. Freight and passenger rail are basically inverted in the USA and Europe. A large % of European passenger traffic is by rail, with only a tiny proportion of freight by rail. Across the Atlantic, the majority of US freight by tonne-km is by rail, while passenger rail is tiny. And yes. Electrified rail for freight is seen in small pockets in Western and Central Europe, even smaller pockets of North America [1]. It is widely used on the major lines in Russia and the majority of freight is electric. India has some electric freight. As does China, and the Chinese government has announced a project to, eventually, electrify all their freight lines. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_Power_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_Power_Railway