Trying to reduce the amount of carbon emissions isn’t just about targeting planes and cars, other forms of transport such as trains are also just as guilty. However over in Germany, they are hoping to change that by introducing what seems to be the world’s first zero-emission passenger train that is powered by hydrogen.Called the Coradia iLint, this train will only emit excess steam into the atmosphere which should be relatively clean/safe. Given that Germany plays home to about 4,000 diesel-powered trains, the iLint should be a welcome “green” relief. However before you get too excited, testing is only being carried out by the end of the year, and assuming all goes to plan, it will be open to the public by the end of 2017.
French company Alstom will be the ones responsible for making them, and Lower Saxony has already ordered 14 of them. According to the company’s CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge, “Alstom is proud to launch a breakthrough innovation in the field of clean transportation which will complete its Coradia range of regional trains. It shows our ability to work in close collaboration with our customers and develop a train in only two years.”
The use of hydrogen isn’t new. As The Independent notes, liquid hydrogen has been used at NASA since the 1970s, and the huge cloud that is emitted whenever a shuttle takes off isn’t actually smoke, but steam.
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