Extending the use cases for FC trains through innovative designs and streamlined administrative framework

Topic description

Specific Challenge:

Rail line electrification is in general limited due to economic feasibility. Today, half of EU’s rail lines are not electrified and are operated by diesel trains which generate substantial air pollution and noise. In some cases, diesel trains can also operate on electrified portions of partially electrified lines. Such trains include regional passenger trains, shunting or main line locomotives.

In recent years, some FCH passenger train prototypes have been developed and tested. The interest of many Public Transport Authorities (PTAs), both in EU and abroad for this technology has led to orders being placed in Austria and Germany for small fleets of vehicles to be put into service in 2021 – 2023. Several different OEMs are therefore committed to deliver FCH powered trains and intend to enter the market. As outlined in the common FCH 2 JU & S2R JU study on “Use of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen in the Railway Environment” [40], FC technology provides a flexible, zero-emission and potentially cost-competitive solution to replace diesel trains while FCH trains perform to the rail system specifications as well as the diesel technology can. The most mature FCH application, i.e. Multiple Units, has the potential to become cost competitive with diesel-powered trains in the short term (can potentially replace 30 % of diesel volumes as the most market-ready application by 2030), followed by the Shunters and Mainline Locomotives which still need further technology development. Therefore, FCH technology needs to take a systemic approach to the rail environment and engage simultaneously on different fronts for accelerated deployment.

Despite this increasing interest, many challenges remain for fuel cell trains to be considered a competitive alternative to diesel trains, which should be addressed by this topic:

• The regulatory environment for trains remains fragmented, including both European (Technical Specifications for Interoperability) and national (NNTR – Notified National Technical Rules) technical requirements while today several types of trains are required to address the complete European market. It is estimated that FCH powered trains will face the same market fragmentation which could lead to high fixed costs for each first project in a new normative environment for all types of application;
• Specific standards need to be established with railway safety agencies, operators, rolling stock manufacturers and fuel cell manufacturers on safety, installation and performance testing (as usually done in IEC TC105 [41]) in order to facilitate commercialization across European countries and homologation by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) [42];
• Deployment of traditional line electrification programs is still ongoing. These costly investments, while taking decades to materialize, question also the long-term residual value of train fleets that do not use overhead line electrification. Therefore, bi-mode capability (hydrogen + catenary) could improve marketability and residual value of FCH trains;
• FCH train cost competitiveness against diesel train could be increased by improving the on-board components and sub-systems (improving the train autonomy and its cost).

[40] https://www.fch.europa.eu/publications/use-fuel-cells-and-hydrogen-railway-environment

[41] https://www.iec.ch/dyn/www/f?p=103:7:0::::FSP_ORG_ID,FSP_LANG_ID:1309,25

[42] https://www.era.europa.eu/

The topic aims to support the development of a fuel cell powered train prototype that addresses one of the three railway segments identified by the above-mentioned study: regional passenger trains, shunting or main line locomotives. The project should therefore support:

1. The design and manufacture of an innovative prototype:

• Using FCH traction only or combining FCH traction and electric pantograph;
• Both compressed hydrogen on-board storage solutions (e.g. at 350 or 700 bars) or liquid hydrogen should be explored and considered in scope of the topic;
• Test, validate and carry out the homologation (at EU level, covering at least three Member States) of such a prototype; the testing duration and testing environment should progress the technology to reach TRL7;
• The operational performance of the prototype (autonomy, fuelling downtime) should be competitive with existing diesel-based designs;

2. Propose a normative framework for the placement on the market of trains using FCH propulsion:

• Identify the gaps in the current applicable regulatory and voluntary framework (TSI and EN);
• Propose modifications of relevant standards and TSIs to enable obtaining authorization to place on the market of FCH and FCH bi-mode trains, to be submitted to CEN, CENELEC and the European Union Agency for Railways.

The project should deliver an innovative prototype and therefore go beyond those currently in operation/testing.

Only the design and engineering of the prototype are considered within the scope of the topic, including the building of the fuel cell based power train and hydrogen storage. Other activities, (e.g. train development etc) might be part of the project but shall not be considered within the scope of the topic.

The project should consider developing the necessary supply chain with focus on a healthy and diversified EU value chains (e.g. drivetrain, FC stacks and systems, tanks among others) and second sources for related services, including availability of trained personnel, spare parts etc. in order to bring this technology on a parity with conventional technologies.

TRL at start of the project: 4-5 and TRL at the end of the project: 7.

Any safety-related event that may occur during execution of the project shall be reported to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) dedicated mailbox JRC-PTT-H2SAFETY@ec.europa.eu , which manages the European hydrogen safety reference database, HIAD and the Hydrogen Event and Lessons LEarNed database, HELLEN. A draft safety plan at project level should be provided in the proposal and further updated during project implementation (deliverable to be reviewed by the European Hydrogen Safety Panel (EHSP)).

Activities developing test protocols and procedures for the performance and durability assessment of fuel cell components should foresee a collaboration mechanism with JRC (see section 3.2.B "Collaboration with JRC"), in order to support EU-wide harmonisation. Test activities should adopt the already published FCH 2 JU harmonized testing protocols to benchmark performance and quantify progress at programme level.

“CertifHy Green H2“ guarantees of origin should be used through the CertifHy platform [43] to ensure that the hydrogen produced and dispensed at the HRS is of renewable nature.

The maximum FCH 2 JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 10 million. This is an eligibility criterion – proposals requesting FCH 2 JU contribution above this amount will not be evaluated.

Expected duration: 4 years

[43] https://fch.europa.eu/page/certifhy-designing-first-eu-wide-green-hydrogen-guarantee-origin-new-hydrogen-market

Due to the openness of the topic to various type of applications, KPIs can be different depending on the selected application. Proposals should therefore demonstrate ambitious goals aligned with the technical KPIs included in the FCH 2 JU MAWP and in particular its Addendum [44], while also making reference to the common JUs study on “Use of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen in the Railway Environment” to define further specific targets. Project proposals should also address the market size addressed by the prototype, based on the 2018 edition of the UNIFE World Rail Market Study [45] as part of the potential impact.

In addition, the following impact is expected:

• Demonstration of the competitiveness of trains using a FCH based traction versus existing diesel designs in the selected railway application;
• Knowledge and feedback (regulatory, safety procedure, FCH technologies) should be transferable to all use cases for FCH propulsion in the rail sector;
• Appropriate awareness level of this technology by all the relevant stakeholders according with the chosen application.

[44] https://www.fch.europa.eu/page/multi-annual-work-plan

[45] http://unife.org/publication-press/wrms.html

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 3.3 of the FCH2 JU 2020 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2018– 2020 which apply mutatis mutandis.