G'day all,
don't remember, if this has been mentioned here before:
http://inhabitat.com/university-of-birmingham-students-build-uks-first-hydrogen-powered-locomotive/ (http://inhabitat.com/university-of-birmingham-students-build-uks-first-hydrogen-powered-locomotive/)
http://cleantechnica.com/2012/08/28/first-hydrogen-powered-locomotive-prototype/ (http://cleantechnica.com/2012/08/28/first-hydrogen-powered-locomotive-prototype/)
... interesting project, seems to run on 10.25" (or even 15"?) gauge ... but IMHO it won't neither attract the railroad nor the SciFi oriented modellers ... ::)
Edit: just found a similar project for a mine loco by Sandia/GM: http://crf.sandia.gov/index.php/combustion-research-facility/hydrogen/engineering-demonstrations/hydrogen-storage-engineering/ (http://crf.sandia.gov/index.php/combustion-research-facility/hydrogen/engineering-demonstrations/hydrogen-storage-engineering/)
Cheers
The current UP ad's on TV & Radio promote Diesel/Electric locomotion, only using one gallon of Diesel fuel per 80 miles, pulling a consist.
Water's cheaper than Diesel fuel, the RR's have fuel stops built into their system, seems like a no brainer to convert?
MPH
Water may be cheap but hydrogen is not. The energy needed to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen would be more efficiently spent power the train directly via overhead lines.
It occurs to me that, if we heat water, the result is steam. Since water is generally inexpensive, perhaps steam would be a viable power source. And I recall reading about a car from India that runs on compressed air. I sure hope we come up with something soon to replace gas and oil. -- Russ
Quote from: finescalerr on October 09, 2013, 01:25:50 AM
It occurs to me that, if we heat water, the result is steam. Since water is generally inexpensive, perhaps steam would be a viable power source. And I recall reading about a car from India that runs on compressed air. I sure hope we come up with something soon to replace gas and oil. -- Russ
... as we already had locomotives running on compressed air and compressed steam (Dampfspeicherlok) as well, compressed air driven cars by TATA (or MDI (http://www.mdi.lu/english/)) were completey new to me ... they even build a "bullet proof dwarf tank" (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/04/finally-nano-car-can-withstand-bullets-and-grenades/1715/) ... ;D ;D ;D ... (still chuckling) ...