The world’s largest rail vehicle manufacturer has rolled out a zero-emissions train running on hydrogen fuel cells with a supercapacitor buffer. The four-car train is capable of 100 mph (160 km/h), making it the fastest hydrogen train to date.
Jointly developed by state-owned industrial monolith CRRC and Chengdu Rail Transit, this is China’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train, offering a range of 373 miles (600 km), and emitting nothing but water. It’s capable of self-driving, with 5G communications, automatic wake-up, start and stop, and return to depot functionality.
Germany is ahead on this kind of thing, with some 14 hydrogen-fueled Alstom trains already in service as of last year. The CRRC machine can beat the German trains for speed by around 20 km/h (12 mph), but the German trains currently offer a much greater range at ~620 miles (1,000 km).
It’s interesting to note that while Japan and Korea have been the most vocal countries pushing for green hydrogen as a transport solution, the latest figures show China is taking the lead in actual hydrogen refueling station deployments. There are only a little over 1,000 hydrogen stations in the world, according to Information Trends, and around one-third of them are in China.
That might be a telling move; the country that controls the vast majority of the lithium battery supply chain is also quietly moving the fastest on hydrogen. With a lithium resource squeeze threatening to drive prices through the roof and kneecap the electric revolution right as it’s picking up speed, it would seem prudent to push hydrogen alternatives early.
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