this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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First hydrogen locomotive started working in Poland.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I cannot understand the future use case of hydrogen locomotives. Who even funded this thing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Why not?

Batteries can't keep nearly as much power in a space as burnable fuel can, it's just physically impossible because the oxygen you add to fuel gives it a far higher energy density where batteries need the oxygen built in.

Something like a locomotive also needs an absolute shit ton of power to pull the trains they pull, so you're going to have a lot of difficulty and it's going to be pretty expensive running high voltage lines across these railroads.

Hydrogen, because of railroad can easily control the infrastructure and fill up a train, run it right away, and refill it at its destination, could actually be a pretty viable option

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

you’re going to have a lot of difficulty and it’s going to be pretty expensive running high voltage lines across these railroads.

It's worked just fine for the past century

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You got any idea of the energy density of Hydrogen? On a per m3 basis, batteries hold a lot more energy.

BTW, hydrogen doesn't get burned.

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[–] Gregorech 3 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Would this be a viable option for cruise or cargo ships as well?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not a very good one.

Hydrogen density is too low, there is more hydrogen in things like ammonia or methanol. All of these are potential solutions to fossil bunk fuel or LNG, but all have issues and there is no clear winner yet.

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