{"id":68495,"date":"2022-11-08T00:36:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T00:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/11\/08\/why-an-old-train-could-point-to-a-clean-energy-future\/"},"modified":"2022-11-08T00:36:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T00:36:05","slug":"why-an-old-train-could-point-to-a-clean-energy-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/11\/08\/why-an-old-train-could-point-to-a-clean-energy-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Why an old train could point to a clean energy future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An old diesel freight train in British Columbia, Canada, is about to be brought back to life.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Local company Hydrogen in Motion (H2M) is currently converting the Green Goat locomotive to run on a mix of hydrogen and battery power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The so-called shunting locomotive takes on tasks such as transporting small loads of timber or animal feed to shunting yards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If all goes according to plan, H2M will have the engine running by the end of this year or early next year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“With the successful demonstration of that, we would also be looking at much larger trains,” says Grace Quan, president and chief executive officer of H2M. “We would consider converting entire fleets.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hydrogen, which emits water but no carbon dioxide when burned, is often touted as the fuel of the future. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There are already some hydrogen-powered trains like those currently in use in Lower Saxony. The technology debuted there in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the UK, a hydrogen locomotive, HydroFlex2, is being tested at Long Marston, Warwickshire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But current methods of storing hydrogen in tanks, as a high-pressure gas or extremely cold (cryogenic) liquid, are expensive and potentially unsafe. Scientists have long tried to find ways to store hydrogen in a more inert solid form.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the case of H2M, the company has developed a nanomaterial that stores hydrogen at relatively low pressure compared to other techniques.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By simply opening a valve and releasing the pressure, the hydrogen escapes, just like when the CO2 in a carbonated drink is released when you open the bottle, Ms Quan says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She adds that hydrogen could be particularly useful for powering heavy vehicles that travel long distances, like trains and trucks, although the company has also developed a hydrogen-powered three-wheeled tuk-tuk as a small demonstration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Depending on the size of the fuel cell, we could supply electricity for up to a week,” says Ms. Quan from the tuk tuk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, she adds that raising investment funds to develop her company’s technology has not been easy. And many other solid-state hydrogen storage solutions are in the early stages of development.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While some of them are exciting, the big challenge they face is proving that they are commercially viable and worth giving preference to, say, batteries for certain applications.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Duncan Gregory of the University of Glasgow says those currently working on hydrogen storage technology are aiming to achieve a density of 5 wt% (per cent by weight) or more within the storage medium. “It’s really difficult to achieve that,” he explains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But the effort is great. Take the method that Ian Chen of Deakin University in Australia and colleagues are working on. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It’s a technique called ball milling, a type of milling process that uses tiny balls in a canister. This grinding activity increases pressure levels and promotes the absorption of gases by a powder inside the canister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Prof. Chen and his colleagues have found that they can use it to store gases, including hydrogen, in boron nitride powder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We like it because it’s stable, non-toxic and light,” says Prof. Chen, adding that 5 wt% should be possible with this method.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In July, the team published a paper describing how this process could be used to store hydrocarbons. The details of the experiments in which they managed to store hydrogen and other gases like CO2 and ammonia have yet to be released.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Prof. Chen is excited about the possibility of storing hydrogen in this form, which only requires the application of heat to release the gas again. But he admits that there is a long way to go between this research and commercial success.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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More technology of business:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The team would need to design large-scale devices and demonstrate that the method would be truly cost-effective at scale. “We don’t claim that we have solved all the big problems,” says Prof. Chen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Cost challenges were underscored in October when the German state of Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg ruled out replacing diesel locomotives with hydrogen-powered trains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    A study commissioned by the state came to the conclusion that the installation of overhead lines or battery hybrid trains offers significantly better value for money over a period of 30 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Prof Gregory, who is currently working on hydrogen technology with a separate, unnamed company, adds that one of the potential problems with the ball milling process is how long it takes. The small-scale experiments reported so far by Prof. Chen and his colleagues took 20 hours of milling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Hydrogen stored in the solid state could have other uses besides transportation. A trial currently underway in Scotland will test hydrogen production and storage on one of the Orkney Islands<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    A machine learning system monitors weather patterns and decides when to use electricity from nearby wind turbines to power the electrolysis process, which produces hydrogen from water.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “It’s a good test bed,” says Enass Abo-Hamed, CEO and co-founder of H2GO Power. “You could have a week full of wind and then a week without anything.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The system also determines when the hydrogen is best released or stored, in this case in a powdered substance. This stored energy would represent a potential resource during wind droughts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Unfortunately, a lack of wind has helped push up UK energy prices this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Although it is not yet certain that the Orkney system will actually be connected to the local grid during the trial, Dr. Theoretically, it could also be converted back into the gaseous state in the future and used to heat households.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Hydrogen has potential as a boiler fuel that would be cleaner than natural gas, Prof Gregory argues, although there are significant challenges to implementation as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Recent studies have questioned the potential of hydrogen as a fuel for both heating and transportation. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Prof Gregory argues that if someone can solve the problem of hydrogen storage, it could fundamentally change the way we power the world’s vehicles – from freight trains to cars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “I can see that in 20 years or so, if anyone eventually develops a material that does the job, batteries could well be replaced with hydrogen,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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