But what about trains?
Germany has deployed 14 hydrogen-powered trainsin its Lower Saxony region, replacing diesel locomotives on a sixty-mile web link.
Hydrogen is a zero-emissions fuel and can kind of piggyback on existing diesel refueling infrastructure.
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But the reality, as you may have guessed, is more complicated.
“On the face of it, filling up with hydrogen looks like filling up with gas.
“And hydrogen-powered cars are also very pleasant to use.
Its a Gas
Right away, things get difficult.
And hydrogen is even trickier than liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
In the meantime, hydrogen is transported in large trucks, not unlike gasoline.”
That’s why there are relatively few hydrogen-powered cars available.
Not So Clean
The other downside of hydrogen is it’s not particularly green.
When you burn it with oxygen, it turns into water (although it can also produceoxides of nitrogen.
That part is fine and one of hydrogen’s major attractions.
The problem is producing it.
All Aboard
Trains, though, may be another proposition entirely.
“Running a train on hydrogen is also straightforward but requires much less investment in infrastructure than overhead wires.
You store enough hydrogen on the train for any given route,” says Cogan.
On the face of it, filling up with hydrogen looks like filling up with gas.
You pump it in, and off you go.
Replacing fossil fuels is hard because theyre so entwined in everything we do.
We need bigger changes than just replacing one form of fuel with another.
One of our biggest problems is cars themselves.
Were too used to them, and in some areas, cities are designed around them.
The reality is this: its time to think about new ways to clean things up.
