China builds a new hydrogen locomotive that could replace diesel ones
China has built what it calls the most powerful hydrogen locomotive in the world. This clean, renewable technology is speculated to have the potential to replace most of the fossil fuel systems used in thousands of trains across the country.
The new engine, converted from a diesel-powered locomotive to run solely on hydrogen-powered fuel cells, can run for up to 190 hours and can be refueled in two stages, the South China Morning Post reported. The engine can hold up to 270 kg of hydrogen, which is considered a clean energy source because when burned as a fuel it only produces water as a by-product. It does not produce pollutants or greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide.
The locomotive is called Ningdong and was produced by the state-owned China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC).
Earlier, Engineering reported that the CRRC launched the world's first hydrogen-powered city train in January. The train was produced in a joint effort between CRRC Changchun Railway Company and Chengdu Rail Transit.
As our atmosphere becomes hotter and more turbulent due to the greenhouse effect, vehicle emissions are a major cause of global warming.
“ As China aims to achieve peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, governments at all levels are making efforts to promote the hydrogen power industry by setting specific plans to development of hydrogen to lead the industry ,” said Chen Weirong, dean of Southwest Jiaotong University School of Electrical Engineering, according to a report.
The National Development and Reform Commission, China's main economic regulatory body, jointly with the National Energy Administration, presented a plan in March 2022 to promote high-quality development of the hydrogen industry .
According to the plan, China will aim to have around 50,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles and a batch of hydrogen fueling stations by 2025. China aims to produce 100,000 to 200,000 tons of hydrogen generated from renewable energy sources annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions from 1 to 2 million tons per year, the press release reads.
According to the SCMP report, CRRC's hydrogen technology has the potential to replace more than 90 percent of fossil fuel-powered engines. Now only one problem remains: to efficiently produce the necessary hydrogen.
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The article China builds a new hydrogen locomotive that could replace diesel ones comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-cina-costruisce-una-nuova-locomotiva-ad-idrogeno-che-potrebbe-sostituire-quelle-diesel/ on Sun, 18 Jun 2023 12:44:42 +0000.