31 March 2008 Indonesia offers high-speed train project on crowded Java The Indonesian government is offering to international investors the high-speed train project connecting the two largest cities of Jakarta and Surabaya, local press said Monday. The 683-km railway project is estimated to cost 6.14 billion U. S. dollars, which the government is unable to spare from the state budget, reported leading economic daily Bisnis Indonesia, quoting a senior official from the Transportation Ministry. The government promised various incentives and privileges for investors willing to build the railway and operate the high-speed train, which could travel between the two cities in just three hours. Source: Xinhua News Agency 31 March 2008 Indonesian High Speed Train Project Offered to Investor Indonesia's Transport Ministry has offered investors the chance to build a US$6.14 billion project of high speed trains and tracks covering a distance of 683 kilometers between Jakarta and Surabaya in East Java. Railway Director General Wendy Aritenang Yazid said the government will facilitate the process of securing the license and guarantee legal certainty for investor agreeing to build and operate the project. Prospective investors may build and operate the project without involving the state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api, Yazid said. She said the tracks for high speed train may be built over unused land along the existing railway tracks of PT KA. She said the investors have to be involved as the project could not come to reality by relying on the cash strapped government. A feasibility study carried out by French railway company Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SCNF) says the high speed train could cover the distance in three hours as against more than 10 hours normally. Investors from France, Japan and South Korea have indicated interest in the project. Source: Investment Coordinating Board of the Republic of Indonesia 01 January 2008 Demonstrating the power of hydrogen IMAGINE a train which is nearly silent, whose only exhaust is pure water. A train without overhead wires, running on fuel produced using renewable energy. But this is no futuristic dream - the VLTJ Hydrogen Train Project aims to launch Europe's first hydrogen fuel cell train in 2010. The consortium behind the project currently includes Vossloh, the University of Salerno, Strandmøllen Industrigas, Dana Tank, Denmark's Hydrogen Innovation & Research Centre, the UK's Rail Safety & Standards Board, and Danish independent railway VLTJ. Hydrogen fuel cells have a lower energy efficiency then conventional electrification, due to the conversion losses in hydrogen production (electrolysis has an 80% efficiency), hydrogen storage (90%), the fuel cell (45%) and electric motor (90%). But hydrogen fuel produced using renewable energy will still have an overall energy efficiency comparable to diesel traction at roughly 30%, and that is before we take into account the considerable gains that can be achieved through the use of regenerative braking. Hydrogen for railway use can be produced by electrolysis of water, with the environmental benefits dependent on the method of electricity generation, which can include renewable sources such as wind turbines. Surplus industrial hydrogen is a shorter-term source of fuel, and both options are currently available at the project site (more ...). Source: Railway Gazette 21 October 2007 All aboard the GO hydrogen express ONTARIO, Canada: Now that the provincial Liberals have secured another four years in office, it's fair to ask whether Premier Dalton McGuinty's recent talk of locally manufactured, hydrogen-powered GO trains was just election rhetoric or a serious, forward-looking strategy to nurture innovation and create jobs. McGuinty revealed last month that his government was in early-stage talks with Bombardier to design and develop an emission-free commuter train propelled by hydrogen-powered fuel cells and used by GO Transit. Niche fuel-cell markets have also emerged, costs are slowly falling, and storage technologies are improving, even if profitability remains elusive. Fuel cells running on hydrogen are gaining traction for back-up power, while micro fuel cells are poised to appear in portable commercial electronics. Ballard Power and several other companies, meanwhile, have made a strong business case for using fuel cells to power forklifts (more ...). Source: The Star 19 Oct 2006 JR tests fuel cell hybrid train On October 19, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) made a test run of its NE Train (New Energy Train) — the world’s first fuel cell hybrid train — in Yokohama’s Kanazawa ward. With two 65-kilowatt fuel cells and six hydrogen tanks under the floor and a secondary battery on the roof, the clean train emits only water and runs without receiving juice from power lines. The train can travel at a maximum speed of 100 kph (60 mph) for 50 to 100 km (30 to 60 miles) without a hydrogen refill Thirty passengers boarded the train for the test run, which consisted of a series of back-and-forth jaunts along a 300-meter test track. The train smoothly accelerated to a maximum speed of 50 kph (30 mph), providing a ride quality no different from an ordinary train. A separate fuel cell train is under development by the Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI), but the NE Train differs in that it is a hybrid relying on a secondary battery that stores electricity generated during braking. The secondary battery provides auxiliary power during acceleration or when fuel cell power is insufficient. JR East hopes to see hybrid commuter trains in widespread use in 10 to 20 years. Lowering the cost and improving the mileage of fuel cells is a serious challenge, but the effort is not without reward. In addition to environmental benefits, eliminating the need for unsightly power lines means lower infrastructure costs and a prettier landscape to look at from the train window. Testing of the train on public tracks will begin next April. Source: Chunichi Shimbun 03 August 2006 Hydrogen on Track Vehicle Projects, spun out of the Colorado School of Mines, in Golden, is recognized as the first company to have built a fuel-cell locomotive. Its earlier 3.6-metric-ton, 17-kilowatt hydrogen-powered mine locomotive—for which Nuvera also supplied PEM fuel cell stacks—was completed in 2002 and demonstrated in a working mine in Ontario [see photo, “Little Workhorse”]. “We retrofitted a battery-powered locomotive, because it already had an electric drive,” says Miller. Miller says that the mine locomotive served as a proof of concept for all that needs to be verified in a fuel-cell vehicle. Is it safe? Can you easily and regularly refuel the vehicle? Does it deliver enough power for industrial, commercial, and commuter applications? Compared with the battery-powered locomotive it replaced, he says, “it had twice the power and could be refueled with hydrogen in 30 to 45 minutes, as opposed to 8 hours.” RTRI is planning a two-car locomotive—one carrying electric motors, a transformer, and a battery charged by regenerative braking, and the other holding fuel-cell stacks and a hydrogen storage cylinder. The train’s top speed will be 120 kilometers per hour, and it will travel 300 to 400 km before its hydrogen needs replenishing. Officials say they hope to have the train ready by 2010, and a prototype, with one-fourth the propulsion power of the proposed final version, is already being tested. Japan Rail East says a hybrid locomotive that it is designing will get about one-third of its propulsion power from two 65-kW electric motors driven by onboard fuel cells and the rest from a diesel engine. It will start traversing the mountainous Nagano and Yamanashi prefectures west of Tokyo by the summer of 2007 (more ...). Source: IEEE Spectrum 03 July 2006 'Hydrail' Picking Up Steam: The Push for a Commuter Train Run on Fuel Cells Jul. 1--He's been toasted in Denmark and hailed as a visionary, and he helped coin a word, "hydrail," that already gets more than 2,000 Google hits. That's just the beginning of Stan Thompson's dream. The retired BellSouth strategic planner believes Charlotte can become the first U.S. city to run a hydrogen-powered commuter train. The locomotive would operate on fuel cells that use hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity, leaving behind only water vapor. Fuel cells aren't scientific fantasy. NASA has used them since the 1960s to power spacecraft, and they're being tested for such things as airport vehicles and forklifts. But practical problems have so far blocked their most widely sought use: in cars.The cells are expensive, and their durability is untested. Hydrogen is costly to extract and bulky to store. Fueling infrastructure doesn't exist (more ...). Source: Fuel Cell Today 05 Apr 2006 Japan Railways to test world’s first fuel cell-powered train On April 4, the East Japan Railway Company reported progress in the development of the world’s first fuel cell-powered train. With the prototype nearing completion, the company announced plans to begin trial runs in order to collect data before putting the train into commercial service. According to officials, the test train consists of one car and is powered by two 65kW fuel cells that enable speeds of up to 100 kph (60 mph). The train is an upgraded version of JR’s New Energy (NE) train — an experimental diesel-electric hybrid developed in 2003 — whose diesel generator has been replaced with fuel cells. The new fuel cell-powered NE train is scheduled to begin service in the summer of 2007 on the rural, non-electrified Koumi Line in Nagano and Yamanashi prefectures. Hydrogen stored in a tank aboard the train is supplied to the fuel cells, where it reacts with oxygen to produce electricity. Unused electricity and electricity generated during braking is stored in a secondary battery, which is used as an auxiliary power source. In addition to being energy-efficient, hydrogen fuel cells emit no carbon dioxide (a contributor to global warming), only water. Source: Fuji Senkai Business