Hydrogen Cars, Vehicles and Infrastructure
Canadian Pacific’s southern merger puts zero-carb freight in easy reach by guest blogger Stan Thompson Canadian Pacific Railway has throttled-up the transition to zero-carbon freight movement by two big notches recently. Last December, 2020, CPR announced “that it plans to develop North America’s first line-haul hydrogen-powered locomotive.” Then in March, 2021, they announced a combination with […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger Stan Thompson New Testament, Book of Matthew, Chapter 7, verse 3: And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? This familiar passage is quoted not because scripture proves anything about GM, Nikola or pundit journalism but […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger, Stan Thompson Let’s limit the damage to hydrogen progress caused by “friendly fire.” Good reportage, scholarship and fair play do not require that every article point out that most hydrogen comes from extracted carbon. It’s true, it’s undeniable—but it’s totally irrelevant. The vast amounts of hydrogen produced from hydrocarbons to make petrochemicals, […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger Stan Thompson On Sunday, September 16, 2018, at Bremervörde, in the State of Niedersachsen, Germany, I boarded the first intercity hydrail train—my dream since 2003! It was Alstom’s shiny new blue Coradia iLint Hydrogen Multiple Unit light rail train, wireless electric and silent as the wind turbines on the North German horizon […]
Continue ReadingThe Mooresville Hydrail Initiative, begun in August, 2003, as an invited proposal to the US DOT’s Volpe “think tank”, reached its primary goal this morning (17 September 2018) as the first ticketed passengers rode Alstom’s ghostly quiet Coradia iLint trains through Lower Saxony—the world’s first regular intercity hydrail passenger traffic! Stan Thompson (pictured above), the […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger Stan Thompson A major milestone in railway history was passed on April 13, 2018, when Alstom Transport’s Coradia iLint hydrail [hydrogen fuel cell rail] train made a “presentation ride” from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt, in the federal state of Hesse, Germany. From my point of view it was a bittersweet occasion for two […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger Stan Thompson If anyone out there is a friend of CNN’s Nadine Schmidt, please do five things: Buy Nadine a really nice steak dinner! Thank her for her excellent segment on hydrail April 12 (http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/12/technology/germany-hydrogen-powered-train/). Give her my eternal thanks for exhuming perhaps the deepest—and most regrettably—buried environmental story of the 21st century. Tell her about […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger Stan Thompson It’s been 18 years since Dr. Holger Busche proposed that German electric passenger trains could run on wind energy carried on board as hydrogen. Once pointed out, it was an obvious thing to pursue; but the first German hydrail train won’t go into service until late next year. The impediment hasn’t […]
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