‘Transformational’: how a California city launched America’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 months ago by plinky@hexbear.net to c/urbanism@hexbear.net

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smth smth trying everything before doing the right thing

The new technology will make Zemu the first hydrogen-powered, zero-emissions passenger train in North America to meet Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requirements when it goes into service early next year.

Developing a lightweight frame that passed FRA standards is a promising accomplishment because it provides a zero-emission alternative to the expensive overhead electrification that’s common in Europe, but is prohibited by the FRA on freight lines in the US. “Once you take that vehicle and you add hydrogen to it, you make it possible to have zero emission technology on the same corridors where Union Pacific and NSF run,” Killpack said. “That’s what’s really crazy and cool about this”.

Incredible, freight trains are prohibited from running on electricity in the empire?

In order for these small but promising steps to be economically sustainable in the long run, though, huge investment will need to be made to expand the infrastructure. “You’ve got to be selling at least hundreds [of trains] to start to get some scale economies and bring those costs down,” said Lewis Fulton, the Energy Futures Program director at UC Davis’s Institute for Transportation Studies.

(fucking bullshit)

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[-] someone@hexbear.net 15 points 2 months ago

Hydrogen fuel is a scam being perpetrated by fossil fuel companies. Almost all commercial hydrogen is made through a process called methane steam reforming. It involves cracking methane (CH₄) with high-temperature steam (H₂O) and collecting the H's that fall out. Unfortunately, the leftover C and O likes to get together and make CO and CO₂, which is vented straight into the atmosphere because it's cheaper than capturing them. This is what's called "grey hydrogen". "Blue hydrogen" is the exact same process but with modest attempts made to capture some of the carbon. Most of the carbon still gets vented though. Behind every hydrogen-fuel concept is a natural-gas extraction company looking to keep a strangehold on energy policy.

Anyone who tells you that commercial hydrogen is made mostly from electrolysis (electricity plus catalyst plus water = hydrogen and oxygen, aka "green hydrogen") is either lying through their teeth, or has had the wool pulled over their eyes. A tiny fraction of commercial hydrogen is made that way because it's not cost-effective. And even then mostly as greenwashing PR stunts.