Hydrail

Abstract: Hydrogen used as an energy carrier is a promising alternative to diesel for autonomous railway motive power, but, globally, few prototypes exist. In 2012, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers held the inaugural Railway Challenge, in which the participating teams had to develop, design and construct a locomotive to run on 10.25 inch (260.35 mm) gauge track while meeting certain set design criteria as well as competing in operational challenges. The University of Birmingham Railway Challenge Team’s locomotive design is described in this paper. The vehicle is the UK’s first hydrogen-powered locomotive and is called Hydrogen Pioneer. The drive-system consists of a hydrogen tank, a 1.1 kW proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell stack, a 4.3 kWh battery pack and two 2.2 kW permanent-magnet traction motors. The development of the locomotive, from the original concept to the final design, and the design validation are all presented in this paper. The locomotive completed successfully all challenges through which the proof of the concept of a hydrogen-hybrid locomotive was established.

Abstract: Hydrogen-based railway (Hydrail) vehicles are rising as a solution that decreases the environmental impact caused by carbon emissions from diesel engines and at the same time avoids the enormous capital costs associated with direct electrification (DE) of rail lines. This article introduces new technoeconomic models for the inclusion of Hydrail in electricity markets. Exploiting the size and flexibility that large Hydrail electricity demand imparts, price-taker and price-maker scenarios are outlined and compared. Furthermore, this article presents a novel optimal scheduling mechanism for the hydrogen electrolysis process chosen for hydrogen production in the models. This mechanism minimizes electricity costs based on a linear programming model which optimizes the energy drawn from the grid for hydrogen generation, incorporating hydrogen reservoir capabilities and hydrogen input and output rates. This article proves the strengths of these new technoeconomic models for the inclusion of Hydrail in electricity markets and the effectiveness of the optimal scheduling mechanism, through a case study for the deployment of a Hydrail system in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario’s electricity market. After comparison to a DE option, this article presents Hydrail as a strong option for the evolution of sustainable, integrated, cost-effective, and low-carbon-emission solution for public transportation.

Abstract: To address the transportation sector’s contribution to climate change problems across North America (NA), passenger rail is an attractive solution. However, NA passenger rail traditionally relies o...