Rusnano, Russian Railways and Sinara Group have signed a cooperation agreement for the development of mainline and shunting hydrogen locomotives for freight transport activities. The new locomotives will use power plants based on electrochemical hydrogen fuel cells in conjunction with lithium-ion batteries.
Under the agreement, RZD will be the potential customer for the new locomotives, Sinara Transport Machines (STM) will be the general contractor, while Rusnano and its subsidiaries will act as a co–contractor in respect of creating hydrogen fuel cells, energy storage system based on lithium-ion batteries and other innovative technological solutions.
As Russian Railways is continuing to carry out energy efficiency projects to protect the environment, from 2025 intends to acquire “only electric locomotives as well as locomotives powered by alternative energy sources such as natural gas and hydrogen. This will let us to reduce the environmental burden even further,” said Oleg Belozerov, the CEO of RZD said.
The agreement provides for a complex research, development and design works, a comprehensive analysis of the necessary infrastructure, the development of technical requirements for the mainline freight locomotive, as well as several other activities. The parties are also interested in the development of mutually beneficial cooperation on the development of shunting locomotives using hybrid power plant based on hydrogen fuel cells and energy storage systems of domestic production.
According to Dmitry Pumpyansky, the President of Sinara Group, the pilot of the mainline and shunting hydrogen locomotives can be developed during 2023 and 2024.
“The agreement is an example of creating alliances to separate costs and competencies for developing a promising technological project with the use of alternative energy resources. Today, the sector of hydrogen and electric transport is very promising, and Rusnano intends to actively develop this focus area,” Sergey Kulikov, the Chairman of the Management Board of Rusnano said.
Rusnano is involved in the development of rail transport based on environmentally friendly solutions.
In 2019, the company, together with RZD and TMH have agreed to develop a hybrid shunting locomotive using lithium-ion storage batteries designed to be used for shunting activities at the stations of large cities. The agreement covered the supply of 131 such locomotives within 6 years after the first locomotive is accepted.
In addition, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Rusnano and Enel discussed about a joint project on the production of green hydrogen which will creating Russia’s first green hydrogen production at a wind farm in Murmansk Region.
This is the second agreement to develop hydrogen rail vehicles in Russia. In April, TMH and the State Atomiс Energy Corporation Rusatom signed a cooperation agreement to develop hydrogen fuel cell trains.
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