In what will be a world first, 10 Spanish companies have joined forces to design, build, and install a propulsion system based on renewable hydrogen fuel cells on a high-speed train. Under the Hympulso project, the companies will develop a set of technologies that can be applied to the Talgo 250 ‘all-terrain’ train, thereby making it possible to electrify the rail network with energy generated entirely from renewable sources — even on lines without overhead power lines.
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Talgo, Hympulso also includes Golendus, Ingeteam, Optimus3D, Repsol and Sener as partners. Universidad Pontificia Comillas, and Tecnalia are collaborators, while Adif is an observer. The initiative has received a grant of 6.5 million euros and is part of Spain’s ‘Incentive Programme for the Innovative Value Chain and Knowledge of Renewable Hydrogen’, which is part of the ‘Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan’.
Hympulso will activate the entire renewable hydrogen value chain in the railway system, from production to consumption. The project will also make it possible to analyse the impact of the future transition on the various railway infrastructure assets managed by Adif, such as maintenance facilities or the track, and will result in a joint output of hydrogen supply installations adapted to railways — both mobile and static — and a ‘pioneering prototype’ of a hybrid bi-modal passenger train with automatic track-gauge change. The latter capability will allow the train to run both on conventional and high-speed networks, using catenary supply when available, or hydrogen and batteries ‘in those corridors that are not electrified’.
Renewable hydrogenThis holistic perspective is key because tackling the many major technological challenges posed by the adoption of renewable hydrogen in rail transport will require the involvement of multiple stakeholders at all levels, and from both the public and private sectors. With Hympulso, the project partners will be seeking to evolve their enabling technologies and expertise in the field of renewable hydrogen, an objective that will see Talgo’s objective be to develop, manufacture and test dual-hybrid hydrogen battery traction on a Talgo 250 train, intended for long-distance operations on mixed sections (partially electrified and partially non-electrified).
These trains have two ‘technical end cars’ (CETs) each; these are currently used to generate electricity from diesel to power the traction units on sections without catenary. Under the Hympulso project, one of these diesel CETs will be replaced by a Talgo 250 unit equipped with fuel cells and batteries to supply electricity to the locomotives using 100% green, renewable hydrogen.
As for the various roles: Ingeteam will design, manufacture and test reversible high-power converters capable of charging the batteries from the catenary; Repsol and Golendus will be responsible for developing two hydrogen refuelling facilities; Sener will carry out an overall risk analysis and a simulation of the operation of the services; and Optimus3D will work on more efficient and durable new materials, based on additive manufacturing, and new processes to be used in hydrogen applications.