SNCF turns to hydrogen with Alstom

The announcement of the return

Guillaume Pepy hopes, with the help of the state, to order to Alstom, and sign a contract to begin the construction of 15 trains running on hydrogen.
The Alstom group proposed in 2018 a prototype to France, after putting into circulation of a first model in Germany.

Given the more or less opaque agreements with the Alstom group in recent years, and the "government objective" to roll out prototypes before the end of the five-year period, there is every chance that the project will be signed.

The prototype in question would be a so-called "dual-mode" model, in other words hybrid: electrical and hydrogen (gaseous substance used in the composition of water).

Recall that for some, the real benefit of the use of hydrogen for the environment remains to be proven, because it is 95% from fossil fuels. Indeed, even if hydrogen is "everywhere in nature", it is rarely usable as is. To be used as an energy vector, it must be separated from other elements such as carbon or oxygen. However, up to now, it is more profitable to carry out these transpositions through coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants. On the other hand, hydrogen is most often transported by road before being transported over trains, then stored and transformed thanks to motor systems that require a lot of energy.

Finally, it should be remembered that the trains in question operate first on the batteries. The use of hydrogen comes in addition once the train launched, to maintain the speed and battery power, useful for braking recovery.

So when the president of the SNCF, whose departure will take place in 2020, plans to no longer use "a single diesel on the French rails in 15 years", it should mention the need to take into account the elements mentioned above.

More generally, the big groups are working to use and develop the technology that could work with hydrogen, but there is no "financial incentive to develop decarbonated production methods," said Erwin Penfornis, director of the hydrogen market. at Air liquide in 2017.

Let us hope that this type of order could possibly participate in this incentive, and more generally agree on the need to deal with the problem of nuclear waste, if it were to be found that it is, once more, difficult to do without power stations. It would be absurd not to support the development of a hydrogen-powered technology, but it would seem useful to take into account the technical and financial realities if we want to do it intelligently, and sustainably. Not sure at least that this is the problem of Alstom, nor that it really fits in "the goal of the quinquennium".