News Flash
- The world’s first hydrogen powered urban train with independent intellectual property rights jointly China’s CRRC Changchun Railway Co and Chengdu Rail Transit has launched a hydrogen powered urban train in Chengdu, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
- The train has a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour and a range of 600km before refuelling.
The inner city train combines hydrogen fuel cell and supercapacitor to replace the original catenary power supply system used on their existing Fuxing bullet train. The carbon emissions free energy is generated by the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen in the hydrogen fuel cell. The byproduct is water.
Due to getting rid of the shackles of catenary operating conditions required with electric trains, the train can be widely used in existing non-electrified line sections, greatly increasing the application scope of urban vehicles, while avoiding the huge infrastructure investment and maintenance costs brought about by electrification transformation efforts.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
Source: CRRC Changchun Railway Co
