Russian Railways, Sinara and Rusnano will develop hydrogen freight locomotives. Rusnano, Russian Railways and the Sinara Group signed a cooperation agreement on the development of mainline and shunting hydrogen locomotives for freight traffic.

Russian Railways, Sinara and Rusnano will develop hydrogen freight locomotives

The new locomotives will use power plants based on electrochemical hydrogen fuel cells in combination with lithium-ion batteries, informs Railway Supply magazine.

According to the agreement, Russian Railways will be a potential customer of the new locomotives, Sinara Transport Machines (STM) will be the general contractor, and Rusnano and its subsidiaries will act as a co-contractor for the creation of hydrogen fuel cells and energy storage systems. based on lithium-ion batteries and other innovative technological solutions.

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Since Russian Railways continues to implement energy efficiency projects to protect the environment, and from 2025 intends to purchase “only electric locomotives, as well as locomotives operating on alternative energy sources, such as natural gas and hydrogen. This will allow us to further reduce the burden on the environment, ”said Oleg Belozerov, General Director of Russian Railways.

The agreement provides for comprehensive research, development and design work, a comprehensive analysis of the necessary infrastructure, the development of technical requirements for a main-line freight locomotive, as well as a number of other activities. The parties are also interested in developing mutually beneficial cooperation on the development of shunting diesel locomotives with a hybrid power plant based on hydrogen fuel cells and domestically produced energy storage systems.

According to Dmitry Pumpyansky, President of the Sinara Group of Companies, pilot development of mainline and shunting hydrogen diesel locomotives can be created in 2023–2024.

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“The agreement is an example of the creation of alliances to share costs and competencies for the development of a promising technological project using alternative energy sources. Today, the hydrogen transport and electric transport sector is very promising, and Rusnano intends to actively develop this direction, “said Sergey Kulikov, Chairman of the Board of Rusnano.

Rusnano participates in the development of railway transport based on environmentally friendly solutions.

In 2019, the company, together with Russian Railways and TMH, agreed to develop a hybrid shunting diesel locomotive on lithium-ion batteries, designed for shunting operations at stations in large cities. The agreement provided for the delivery of 131 such locomotives within 6 years after the first locomotive was received.

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In addition, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Rusnano and Enel discussed a joint project for the production of green hydrogen, which will create the first green hydrogen production in Russia at a wind farm in the Murmansk region.

This is the second agreement to develop hydrogen rail vehicles in Russia. In April, TMH and the Rusatom State Corporation signed an agreement on cooperation in the development of hydrogen fuel cell trains.

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