Hydrogen Locomotives

I recently was forwarded on social media a brief video of an Indian politician boasting about a hydrogen-powered locomotive in the Indian railways. Knowledge of basic logic, simple arithmetic, and elementary chemistry would have prevented that railway minister from making those utterly stupid claims but no such luck. What’s worse is that some equally ignorant Indians are thumping their chests and forwarding it around. This is sad.

Of course, most people don’t know much about the various technologies that power our modern world — and nor should they be expected to know. But those who are in charge of making decisions must know, and if they don’t, they must get expert opinion on those matters.

But anyway, here’s what we (the non-retarded) should know about hydrogen. Of the 94 naturally-occurring elements of the periodic table, it is the lightest. It’s a gas at normal temperature and pressure (NTP.) The volume of 1 kg of hydrogen gas at NTP is 11,200 liters. Compare that to the volume of 1 kg of petroleum–about 1 liter. 

The energy content of a kilo of hydrogen is around 33 kwh. When produced via electrolysis, it typically requires around 39 kWh of electricity to produce 1 kg of hydrogen, considering theoretical efficiency. The energy content of one kilo of petroleum is 1.2 kwh. That means, hydrogen is 25 times more energy dense than petroleum. But petroleum is 11,200 times more dense than hydrogen at NTP. That makes hydrogen a poor substitute for petroleum in most applications.

The drawbacks of hydrogen as a fuel are several and severe. It is expensive, inefficient, unsafe, requires new infrastructure, and difficult to handle relative to alternative fuels. See note [1] below.

Since we are on the topic of locomotives, how does hydrogen compare in that context? The cost difference between a hydrogen locomotive and a traditional diesel locomotive is substantial. Here’s the cost comparison.

A new diesel locomotive typically costs $2-5 million. A hydrogen locomotive would likely cost approximately 1.5-2.5 times more, putting the price range at roughly $3-12.5 million. This premium results from several factors. See note [2].

Early hydrogen locomotive projects demonstrate this price premium:

• • Alstom’s Coradia iLint hydrogen passenger trains cost approximately 30-40% more than equivalent diesel trains.
  • Canadian Pacific’s hydrogen locomotive conversion program reported significantly higher costs than new diesel locomotives.

India is a poor country. It is poor because of poor government policies. Those poor government policies made by ignorant and stupid policymakers — bureaucrats and politicians. Unlike the advanced industrialized countries, India cannot afford to FA and FO. It must use mature technology to at least catch up with the world standards — instead of being at the bottom of heap of even developing economies.

How pathetic is Indian railways? Here’s an example. The Delhi-Bangalore Rajdhani is a premium “super fast express”. It’s premium; it’s express; it’s a fast express; it’s a super fast express. Are you impressed yet? OK, here’s what’s impressive. It average speed is 65 kph. My walking speed is 7 kph. (My daily walk of 7 kms takes me an hour.) That means the premium super fast express train in India is nearly 10 times faster than my walking speed.

I bet that you are now suitably impressed.

And if you are, you’d surely be impressed by that rail minister’s boast.

NOTES:

[1]

• • Storage challenges: Hydrogen has very low density, requiring high-pressure tanks (350-700 bar) or cryogenic cooling (-253°C) for storage, making containment expensive and bulky.
  • Infrastructure limitations: Unlike established fossil fuel networks, hydrogen lacks widespread distribution infrastructure, requiring massive investment in production, transportation, and refueling facilities.
  • Energy inefficiency: The “hydrogen economy” often suffers from poor overall efficiency. When using electrolysis to produce hydrogen from water using renewable electricity, then converting back to electricity in fuel cells, the round-trip efficiency is typically 30-40%, versus 70-90% for battery storage.
  • Safety concerns: Hydrogen has a wide flammability range (4-74% concentration in air) and requires minimal ignition energy, creating potential safety hazards. It’s colorless and odorless, making leaks difficult to detect.
  • Production emissions: Currently, about 95% of hydrogen comes from fossil fuels (primarily natural gas steam reforming), producing significant CO2 emissions. “Green hydrogen” from renewable electricity remains expensive.
  • Cost factors: Hydrogen fuel cells contain expensive materials like platinum catalysts, and hydrogen production, compression, and transportation are all energy-intensive processes.
  • Material compatibility issues: Hydrogen can cause embrittlement in certain metals and requires specialized materials for safe handling and storage.

[2]

1. 1. Fuel cell systems: The hydrogen fuel cell powerplant is significantly more expensive than diesel engines, with costs of $1,000-2,000 per kilowatt for the fuel cell stack. A locomotive requiring 2-4 MW of power would add $2-8 million just for the fuel cell system.
   2. Hydrogen storage: High-pressure hydrogen tanks or liquid hydrogen storage systems add $500,000-1,500,000 depending on range requirements and storage technology.
   3. Power electronics: Additional power management systems needed to integrate fuel cells add $200,000-500,000.
   4. Limited economies of scale: While diesel locomotives benefit from decades of manufacturing optimization, hydrogen locomotives are still largely in prototype/small batch production phases.
   5. Development costs: Companies must recover R&D investments from fewer units sold initially.

Here are more details on the cost factors associated with hydrogen as a fuel:

1. 1. Production costs: Green hydrogen production using electrolysis currently costs about $3-8 per kilogram, significantly higher than gray hydrogen from natural gas ($1-2/kg). While costs are projected to decrease, they remain a major barrier to widespread adoption.
   2. Fuel cell expenses: Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells used in vehicles contain platinum catalysts costing $30-50 per gram. A typical fuel cell vehicle requires 30-60 grams of platinum, adding $900-3,000 just for the catalyst. Alternative catalysts are being researched but have performance limitations.
   3. Compression and storage: High-pressure hydrogen storage tanks (Type IV carbon fiber composite) cost approximately $500-1,000 per kilogram of hydrogen stored. For a fuel cell vehicle with 5kg capacity, this adds $2,500-5,000 to vehicle costs.
   4. Transportation challenges: Hydrogen’s low density makes it expensive to transport. Pipeline transportation costs $0.10-0.30 per kg per 100km, while truck transport costs $0.15-0.50 per kg per 100km, significantly higher than natural gas or liquid fuels.
   5. Refueling infrastructure: Hydrogen refueling stations cost $1-2 million each to build, versus $100,000-300,000 for conventional gas stations. Low utilization rates in early adoption phases increase per-unit costs.
   6. Efficiency losses: Each conversion step (electricity to hydrogen, compression, transportation, and back to electricity) incurs energy losses, increasing the effective cost of delivered energy.
   7. Scale limitations: Hydrogen production and distribution haven’t achieved the economies of scale that could significantly reduce costs, creating a challenging chicken-and-egg problem for market development.

The combination of these factors makes hydrogen approximately 2-4 times more expensive than conventional fuels on an energy-equivalent basis in most applications today.