HIGHLANDS ON TRACK TO BECOME H2 POWERED RAIL PIONEER The Highlands could be the pioneer of hydrogen10 Feb 2023 08:19
HIGHLANDS ON TRACK TO BECOME H2 POWERED RAIL PIONEER
The Highlands could be the pioneer of hydrogen rail transport in the UK, Luke Johnson, managing director of H2 Green, pictured below, told the DeCarbScotland conference.
H2 Green hopes to develop two sites producing hydrogen, in Inverness and Sussex, by 2025. “We’ll be producing two and a half tonnes a day and start expanding nationally,” Johnson said. He added that H2 Green is also looking at different forms of transport that could be suitable for hydrogen in the Highlands – buses, trucks, refuse collection vehicles and trains.
There are also opportunities with smaller vehicles in the region because electrification does not work as well in areas with cold climates, mountainous terrains and long travel distances. “That creates opportunities for hydrogen,” Johnson said.
There were challenges with the “different demand profile” in remote locations, he continued. “Unlike a liquid fuel, if we’re going to dispense [hydrogen], we need to know the scheduling of the customer pick-up. We can’t have a system where a [fleet of] trucks will all be back to refuel between 5-6pm, then not visit for the rest of the day – unless we have enormous storage and capability to dispense it all in one go. Understanding customer behaviour is essential.”He said the Highlands could pioneer the UK’s first hydrogen train because it was economically difficult to put in overhead electrification due to significant upgrades required to bridges and tunnel systems”.
Hydrogen offers an “interesting solution”, he told the event, and introduced the idea of a hybrid approach on the rail line between Inverness and Aberdeen – stretches of overhead electrification, alongside charging trains with onboard batteries.
H2 Green has worked with rolling stock company Eversholt to map train movements in the Highlands against projected hydrogen demand. Johnson explained: “Instead of a truck receiving 10-20 kilogrammes of hydrogen, a train would receive 200-300 kg, all of which needs to be dispensed within half an hour, which has a significant impact on the way we design that distribution system.”
Johnson said one of the challenges with green hydrogen was scale: “We could potentially reduce a lot of transport with [hydrogen], and produce it wherever we have a hose pipe and power point. But that’s not necessarily going to be particularly economic at small-scale. So we apply essentially the same technology I’ve used for many years as a geologist [working in oil and gas], where we layer all the components associated with infrastructure and costs – and customer movements – to identify and hone in on opportunities.
“We assess the different possible interactions to understand the optimum design, carry that through into planning and, ultimately, get to the point where we’re at an investment-ready position.
“In a very active industry like wind and solar, a developer like myself would exit at that point, essentially monetise tha
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