As China launches Hydrogen Train, here's a LOOK at Indian Railways' plans

China's CRRC Corporation Ltd. launched hydrogen urban train, the first in Asia and second such trains in the world, after Germany introduced green trains a few months back, The hydrogen train gets a top speed of 160 km/h, and the operational range without refuelling is 600 km. On the other hand, German trains get a record 1175 km range set this September by Coradia iLint serial train of Alstom. The Indian Railways, on the hand, is also moving fast to induct the 'World's Greenest Train' soon.

As per Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, India will most likely get its first-ever indigenous Hydrogen trains by December 2023. As per the minister, like Vande Bharat Express, the Indian Railways is working on the new environment-friendly trains and the engineers are designing it. "The design process is already going on and we should be able to roll out the first hydrogen train in the country by December 2023," he added. 

CRRC Hydrogen Train: A Look

The Hydrogen train was developed on the basis of the Fuxing high-speed platform and includes 4 cars with it. CRRC also introduced such a shunting locomotive in 2021, and hydrogen trams were produced earlier in the mid-2010s. The train will also get Digital solutions from the CRRC including GoA2 automation, component monitoring sensors and 5G data transmission equipment. It is expected that the operation of the train will reduce CO2 emissions compared to diesel traction by 10 tons per year.

World's first Hydrogen train

Earlier, Germany became the first country to operate the world’s first-ever hydrogen-powered passenger train fleet. As per the German govt, it will replace 15 diesel trains, which were previously being operated on tracks that lacked electric supply in Lower Saxony, Germany. The fleet comprises 14 trains, which use fuel cells to generate power, making it the cleanest-greenest train fleet ever.

Hydrogen has been looked at as a potent replacement for fossil fuels in the transportation industry. Fuel cells of smaller sizes are also being developed for their utilisation in cars. Although, the technology is still in its nascent stage for a mass-market product. The challenge of transporting hydrogen and its retail is a challenge, which still needs to be ironed out.