Siemens – Hydrogen drives for rail.
De-Niang Maria Peymandar, Design Manager at Siemens Mobility in Krefeld, Germany.
I am convinced that green hydrogen offers a lot of potential to reduce our emissions from transport and meet our climate goals.
“In a project with Deutsche Bahn, we will be equipping a Mireo train with fuel cells from January 2022. We are testing a completely new overall system consisting of a hydrogen-powered train and a newly designed filling station.”
Fuel Cells for Rail
Nearly half of the railroad lines in Europe are not electrified. The diesel-powered trains that run on these tracks produce emissions. Switching to hydrogen would eliminate these emissions. Siemens Mobility is equipping trains with hydrogen fuel cells.
And De-Niang Maria Peymandar is responsible for integrating fuel cells in the system. The cells support onboard power generation, and the entire system can enable ranges of up to 1000 kilometers.
They stand taller than man, their streamlined heads peering out of the open gate of a brick building on the factory grounds of Siemens Mobility in Krefeld. Here, Mireo trains are assembled. Staring in January 2022, one of them will be equiped with technology that could turn the rail industry toward zero-emission rail transportation. Together with Deutsche Bahn, Siemens Mobility makes hydrogen usable as an energy supplier for multiples units. The trains will be equipped with fuel cells for this purpose.
De-Niang Maria Peymandar says:
I am convinced that green hydrogen still has a lot of potential to reduce our emissions from transport.
As she climbs an iron staircase in the assembly hall that leads to a gallery. Here you can see the roof of the trains, the area where the fuel cells wil be mounted. Maria Peymandar holds a doctorate in chemistry and works as a design manager at Siemens Mobility in Krefeld. The team she works with is working on fuel cell-based power generation onboard Mireo trains.
As a design manager, De-Niang Maria Peymandar is responsible for testing, acceptance, and integration of the system on the vehicle. For her ideas and patents related to this innovation, she has been awarded Siemens “Inventor of the Year 2021” in the Newcomers category.
“Our current project is about testing a completely new overall system consisting of a hydrogen-powered train and a newly designed filling station,” the awards winner tells us. “Fuel cells are needed because the hydrogen is converted into electrical energy in the fuel cell. This energy is then temporarily stored in a battery and used, among other things, as propulsion energy.”
In the development for Deutsche Bahn, she said, the goal is to design the interaction of the hydrogen and battery systems in such a way that the longest possible ranges are possible. “For the future, we expect to achieve ranges of up to 1000 kilometers,” says Peymandar. “This makes the trains ideal for operation in regional transport”.
The figures show the great potential of this approach: In Europe 46 percent of rail lines are not electrified. More enviromentally friendly propulsion technologies – including those using green hydrogen – could reduce CO2 emissions on lines still served by diesel multiple units.
“When we were developing the prototype for the project with Deutsche Bahn, ideas where forming in the back of my mind about what we could improve,” Marua Peymandar says. She is holding a technical drawind in her hands. It shows a train and a sketch of a component with several layers. “These are the bipolar plates of a fuel cel,” she explains.
“I have developed and patended an idea in wich the plates are mounted in such a way that the circulating air cools them while the trains is moving. The air is supplied from the train´s surroundings via an air ducht. This approach would hace a stunning effect: it would make the fuel cell more efficient, cheaper, and ultimately “greener” as we would have to spend less energy on cooling.”
According to Peymandar, it could even potentially eliminate the cooling pump. That would make the train lighter and reduce maintenance costos.
“The idea for mu patender invention came abouut in conversation with colleagues who are in direct contact customers,” she says. “Without the knowledge of real customer needs, the question of how we could make the fuel cell even “greener”, more afforadable and thus more attractive might not have arisen for me at all.”
The creativity of the entire teams is something that sustains and motivates her, she says. “Sometimes you have an idea in the middle of the night, you´re excited, you tell it the next day- and then you get great, constructive feedback that moves you forwards. We have a culture of conversation where you can tell ideas without fear.” Thanks for staying up to date with Hydrogen Central.
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Hydrogen drives for rail, January, 2022
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