Thoughts On Eurostar To North Netherlands And North West Germany
I have now taken Eurostar to Hamburg twice, with a change at Amsterdam Centraal.
The first time, I took two German Inter City trains, with a change at Osnabruck. I wrote about it in From Amsterdam To Hamburg The Hard Way.
On my latest trip, I took the following route.
- An overnight stay in Amsterdam
- Train from Amsterdam Centraal to Groningen with changes at Almere Centrum and Zwolle
- An overnight stay in Groningen
- Rail Replacement Bus from Groningen to Leer
- Train from Leer to Bremen
- Train from Bremen to Bremerhaven
- Train from Bremerhaven to Hamburg
Note.
- There are no direct trains between Amsterdam Centraal and Groningen. Most involve a quick interchange at Almere or Utrecht.
- Amsterdam Centraal to Groningen is electrified.
- Amsterdam Centraal to Groningen takes two hours six minutes on the fastest train.
- When the bridge over the Ems is rebuilt, there should be an hourly train between Groningen and Leer, rather than a two-hourly bus.
- Leer to Bremen is electrified and takes under an hour and a half.
- I took a roundabout route from Bremen and Hamburg, as I wanted to check that the hydrogen-powered trains were running.
- There are direct trains between Bremen and Hamburg.
Could The Slower Route Be Improved?
My thoughts are as follows.
Between Amsterdam Centraal And Groningen
Consider the following.
- The Dutch probably planned the timetable before Eurostar served Amsterdam.
- Eurostar is going to three trains per day between London and Amsterdam
- There are new Dutch InterCity trains on order for other routes.
- A direct service between Amsterdam Centraal and Groningen could probably be under two hours, with perhaps two stops.
- On my trip, the trains trundled along at 50-60 mph, which isn’t very fast.
For these reasons, I would rate it highly lightly that the Dutch will think about a direct service.
Between Groningen And Leer
Without doubt, the problem on this section is the bridge over the Ems.
I estimate the following.
- The mainly single-track railway without electrification between Groningen and Ihrhove near Leer is about seventy kilometres.
- After the bridge is rebuilt, one of Arriva’s Stadler GTWs could do the journey in perhaps 30-35 minutes.
- A bi-mode Stadler Flirt, like one of Greater Anglia’s Class 755 trains, which have a top speed of 100 mph and bags of grunt could probably break the half-hour.
Some web sites put the opening of the new bridge in 2024. I’m reasonably certain, that by that date, an electric train with these power systems would be able to handle the route.
- Dutch electrification
- German electrification
- Batteries
Bombardier and Stadler are certainly aiming to have battery-powered trains in service by the bridge opening date.
Between Leer and Bremen/Hamburg
This electrified double-track section has the following timings.
- Leer and Bremen – 1:24
- Leer and Hamburg 2:23
There doesn’t appear to be any major improvements needed.
Times On The Two Routes Compared
How do the fastest times on the two routes compare?
Via Osnabruck
This is the only route available and the fastest times are something like.
- Amsterdam Centraal and Bremen – 4:16
- Amsterdam Centraal and Hamburg – 5:14
It appears that most services go to both Bremen and Hamburg.
Every time, I’ve changed at Osnabruck, the second train has been late.
Via Groningen
I would estimate the best fastest times are something like.
- Amsterdam Centraal and Bremen – three hours
- Amsterdam Centraal and Hamburg – four hours
I am very surprised that the route via Groningen could appear to be over an hour faster.
Trains For An Amsterdam Centraal and Bremen/Hamburg Service Via Groningen
At present, this service would not be possible, because of the bridge over the Ems.
The route has the following characteristics.
- Dutch electrification at 1.5 KVDC between Amsterdam Centraal and Groningen.
- No electrification from Groningen between Groningen and Ihrhove, which is seventy kilometres.
- German electrification at 15 KVAC between Ihrhove and Bremen/Hamburg
There are several trains that can handle both electrification systems at the two ends of the route, it’s just the seventy kilometres in the middle.
In my view there are several ways to bridge the gap.
Electrification
The Dutch or the Germans can probably electrify the line on time and on budget better than we could.
But which electrification system would be used?
Diesel
Using a dual-mode bi-mode train, that could also run on diesel would be a possibility and I’m sure that Bombardier, Hitachi and Stadler could supply a more or less off-the-the-shelf train, that could run at up to 200 kph where possible and handle the section without electrification on diesel.
But using diesel in an area developing a green economy based on wind power and hydrogen, is probably not a good marketing idea.
Hydrogen
If diesel can handle the route, I’m certain that hydrogen could be used on the section without electrification.
Battery
The section without electrification is only seventy kilometres and in a few years time will be totally in range of a battery train, that charged the batteries on the end sections. Power changeover could be arranged in Leer and Groningen stations if this was thought to be more reliable.
Note that in Hitachi Plans To Run ScotRail Class 385 EMUs Beyond The Wires, I write that Hitachi are claiming a battery range of sixty miles or a hundred kilometres with a Class 385 train with batteries in a few years time. Hitachi won’t be the only train manufacturer with the technology to build a suitable product.
I have to conclude that Groningen and Leer is a classic application for battery power.
Intermediate Stops For An Amsterdam Centraal and Bremen/Hamburg Service Via Groningen
Obviously, the Dutch and the Germans, should know their market and would know where the trains should stop.
Having experienced the route in the last few days, the following stops could be possible.
- Almere Centrum
- Zwolle
- Groningen
- Leer
- Oldenburg
But with modern trains, that have a minimum dwell time at stations, there may be more stops than some might think.
Which Company Would Run The Service?
I don’t know anything about the complications of running international trains, even when they are totally in the Schengen Zone.
In the UK, Amsterdam to Hamburg is the sort of service that would be proposed by a well-funded Open Access Operator.
The company, who would benefit most from this service is Eurostar.
So could we see Eurostar operating or sponsoring Open Access feeder services in Europe, using say 200 kph trains?
Conclusion
It would appear that the following journey times are possible.
- Amsterdam Centraal and Bremen – three hours
- Amsterdam Centraal and Hamburg – four hours
For this to be possible the following is needed.
- The bridge over the Ems is rebuilt.
- Battery power works as its developers hope it will.
How many other routes in the world, would benefit from a similar philosophy?
More About Steamology Motion
In Grants To Support Low-Carbon Technology Demonstrators, I talked about a company called Steamology, who were given a grant by the Department for Transport to develop a method of converting hydrogen into energy.
The company is called Steamology Motion and in Issue 872 of Rail Magazine more details are given in an article, which is entitled DFT Hands Out £350,000 Each To Five Rail Green Schemes.
This is said in the article.
Steamology Motion, the final recipient, aims to create a new zero-emmissions power train for a Vivarail Class 230 train. The W2W system generates steam from compressed hydrogen and oxygen stored in tanks. The steam then drives a turbine to generate electricity.
The concept is aimed at being a ‘range extender’ able to charge onboard battery packs.
My mathematical modelling skills for this type of system have never been strong, but I’m sure that others will know how much hydrogen and oxygen are needed to charge a 200 kWh battery.
- A quick search of the Internet reveals that small steam turbines could be available
- I very much suspect, that as the system is a ‘range extender’, rather than a power unit to take the train hundreds of miles, that the physical size of the gas tanks will be smaller than those proposed by Alston for their hydrogen conversion of a Class 321 train.
I also don’t think that the DfT would have given £350,000 to the company, if the the physics and the mathematics weren’t credible.
Conclusion
If this technology is successful, I suspect it could have other applications.
Hydrogen For Hydrogen-Powered Trains And Other Vehicles
I have received e-mails worrying about how hydrogen-powered trains and other vehicles, like buses and trucks, will get the fuel they need.
Production Of Hydrogen
There are two major methods of producing large quantities of hydrogen.
Steam Reforming Of Natural Gas
Steam reforming is used to convert natural gas into hydrogen by using high temperature and pressure steam in the presence of a nickel catalyst.
This section in Wikipedia is entitled Industrial Reforming, says this.
Steam reforming of natural gas is the most common method of producing commercial bulk hydrogen at about 95% of the world production of 500 billion m3 in 1998. Hydrogen is used in the industrial synthesis of ammonia and other chemicals. At high temperatures (700 – 1100 °C) and in the presence of a metal-based catalyst (nickel), steam reacts with methane to yield carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
It gives this chemical equation for the reaction.
CH4 + H2O ⇌ CO + 3 H2
I have two questions about steam reforming.
- How much fossil fuel energy is needed to create the high temperatures and pressures to make the process work?
- What happens to the carbon monoxide (CO)? Is it burnt to provide heat, thus producing more carbon dioxide (CO2)?
I therefor question the use of steam reforming to produce hydrogen for vehicles, especially, as a system might be required to be installed in a train, bus or freight depot.
The only time, where steam reforming could be used, is where an existing refinery producing large quantities of hydrogen by the process is close TO the point of use.
Electrolysis Of Water Or Brine
It is fifty years, since I worked in the chlorine-cell rooms of ICI’s Castner-Kellner chemical complex at Runcorn.
The process used was the Castner-Kellner Process and this is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry.
The Castner–Kellner process is a method of electrolysis on an aqueous alkali chloride solution (usually sodium chloride solution) to produce the corresponding alkali hydroxide, invented by American Hamilton Castner and Austrian Karl Kellner in the 1890s.
Brine from Cheshire’s extensive salt deposits is electrolysed using a graphite anode and a mercury cathode to produce chlorine, hydrogen, sodium hydroxide and sodium metal.
Large amounts of electricity are needed, but the biggest problem is the poisonous mercury used in the process.
My work incidentally concerned measuring the mercury in the air of the plant.
Since the 1960s, the technology has moved on, and ICI’s successor INEOS, still produces large quantities of chlorine at Runcorn using electrolysis.
More environmentally-friendly processes such as membrane cell electrolysis are now available, which produce chlorine, hydrogen and sodium hydroxide.
In the 1960s, the production of chlorine and hydrogen was a 24/7 process and I would suspect that INEOS have a good deal to use electricity from wind and other sources in the middle of the night.
The Future Of Hydrogen
Hydrogen is a clean fuel, that when it burns to produce heat or is used in a fuel cell to produce electricity, only produces steam or water.
There is also a lot of research going into hydrogen fuel-cells, hydrogen storage and batteries, and some of this will lead to innovative use of hydrogen as a fuel.
As an example, there is a growing market for fuel-cell forklifts. The first one was built in 1960, so fifty years from idea to fulfilment seems about right.
How many other applications of hydrogen will be commonplace in ten years?
- City buses
- Local delivery vans for companies like Royal Mail and UPS.
- Taxis
- Refuse trucks
I also think, some surprising applications will emerge driven by the need to clean up the air in polluted cities.
Ideally, these applications will need a hydrogen filling station at the depot.
Modern electrolysis technologies should lead to the development of simple cells, for the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen and oxygen.
Powered by renewable energy sources or nuclear, this technology could be used to create zero-carbon hydrogen at the point of use.
Diesel Or Hydrogen?
The diesel engine in a New Routemaster bus is a Cummins diesel with these characteristics.
- 4.5 litre
- 138 kW
- 400 Kg
So how much would a 150 kW fuel-cell weigh?
A Ballard FCveloCity-HD, which is capable of producing 100 kW, weighs around 300 Kg.
I feel that as hydrogen and battery technology improves, that more and more city vehicles will be hydrogen-powered.
Hyundai Launch A Hydrogen-Powered Truck
This page on the Hyundai web site is entitled Hyundai Motor Presents First Look At Truck With Fuel Cell Powertrain.
It will be launched this year and looks impressive. Other articles say they have tied up with a Swiss fuel-cell manufacturer called H2 Power and aim to sell a thousand hydrogen-powered trucks in Switzerland.
A Video Of The Alstom Coradia iLint
This video of the Alstom Coradia iLint has been uploaded to YouTube.
I must go and get a ride!
Funding Nemo: £600m Power Cable Connects UK And Belgium
The title of this post is the same as this article in The Guardian.
This is the first paragraph.
A £600m cable connecting the UK and Belgium’s energy systems is about to be switched on, becoming the first of a new generation of interconnectors that will deepen the UK’s ties to mainland Europe just as it prepares to leave the EU.
It runs between Richborough in Kent and Zeebrugge in Belgium and is the fifth interconnector to be connected to Great Britain.
Other interconnectors connect to Ireland, Northern Ireland, France and the Netherlands.
In Large Scale Electricity Interconnection, I discuss the rest of the interconnectors, that are being constructed or planned.
We could see up to fifteen in operation in a few years.
As to Nemo, it was originally thought that the UK would be importing energy from Belgium, but as Belgium needs to service its nuclear power stations and will be shutting them in the next few years, the power will sometimes be flowing the other way. Especially, as more large wind farms come on stream in the UK!
It is my view that Icelink could change everything and Belgium’s possible future power shortage, makes Icelink far more likely.
Wikipedia describes the interconnector between Iceland and Scotland like this.
At 1000–1200 km, the 1000 MW HVDC link would be the longest sub-sea power interconnector in the world.
As more interconnectors are built between the UK and the Continent, including a possible link between Peterhead in North-East Scotland to Stavanger in Norway, which is called NorthConnect, the UK will begin to look like a giant electricity sub-station, that connects all the zero-carbon power sources together.
- Denmark will supply wind power.
- France will supply nuclear power.
- Iceland will supply hydro-electric and geothermal power.
- Norway will supply hydro-electric power.
- The UK will supply nuclear and wind power.
Other sources like wind power from France and Ireland and tidal and wave power from the UK could be added to the mix in the next decade.
The Consequences For Gas
Our use of gas to generate electricity in Western Europe will surely decline.
If projects, like those I discussed in Can Abandoned Mines Heat Our Future?, come on stream to provide heat, the role of gas in providing heating in housing and other buildings will decline in the UK.
We also shouldn’t forget the role of hydrogen, which could also replace natural gas in many applications. It would be created by electrolysis of water or as a by-product of some industrial processes.
Hydrogen could also become a valuable way of storing excess electricity produced by tidal, wave and wind power.
It is unlikely, we will develop a totally gas-free economy, as methane is a valuable chemical feedstock to produce other chemical products we need.
Conclusion
Not many people will be sorry, except for President Putin and a few equally nasty despots in the Middle East.
Arup Called In To Help New Zealand Run Ports And Trains On Hydrogen
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Global Construction Review.
This is the first paragraph.
UK consulting engineer Arup has been brought in to help design and deliver a hydrogen factory for New Zealand’s second largest port. Ports of Auckland said it plans to build a production facility to make the gas from tap water, which it will use to fuel ships, trucks, buses, cars and trains.
It is all part of the aim of making the port of Auckland, zero-carbon by 2040.
I think we’ll see other large self-contained sites like ports, airports, rail container terminals and large industrial complexes using hydrogen, as it may offer advantages over batteries in terms of range, lifting capacity and vehicle size and weight.
There is also no problem with the regular replacement of batteries in equipment like mobile cranes, which in New Zealand’s case will mean importing new ones.
I suspect, hydrogen may be more affordable to run than batteries for Auckland.
HyperSolar Granted Critical Patent for Producing Low Cost Renewable Hydrogen
The title of this post is the same as that as this article on Global News Wire.
It looks to me that a company call HyperSolar is working on producing hydrogen direct from solar power from any water source.
This is technology to watch. Pending full development, you can always watch this video on the HyperSolar web site.
Germany Approves Alstom’s Hydrogen Train For Passenger Service
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Railway Technology.
The title says most of the article, but it also states that the first passenger services in Germany are scheduled for late summer.
Hydrogen Is Really Happening
The title of this post, is the same as that of this opinion in Energy Voice.
It is a good summary of where we are with hydrogen.
One interesting point of several is that researchers in the US and Spain can extract hydrogen from plastic waste.
This article from FuelCellWorks describes the Spanish research.
That would surely be a real zero-carbon fuel!
Retrofitted Hydrogen Fuel Cell EMU Concept Presented
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Global Rail News, that was published in April 2014.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The possibility of retro-fitting diesel multiple units (DMUs) to run on hydrogen fuel cell technology has been put to the test as part of an RSSB and Network Rail-funded innovation research programme.
Fuel Cell Systems, which has worked alongside the University of Birmingham and Hitachi Rail Europe, says the six-month study has demonstrated the feasibility of installing hydrogen fuel cell technology on DMUs as an alternative to electrification.
It strikes me that some serious people are involved in this project.
The report on the project was published in June 2016 and it is stored here on the University pf Birmingham web site.
The Anonymous Widower 