Linkage of a decentralised green energy generation system to the requirements of railway operations

The reduction of carbon emissions in the transport sector is one of the main objectives of the railway industry to meet existing and future regulations on decarbonisation. Fuel cells can contribute to this goal, but their usage needs to be further investigated and efficiently integrated into existing systems. A significant technical hurdle is the decoupling of hydrogen generation to the consumption identifying the minimum sufficient storage. To maintain the existing electrical infrastructure for Europe and to keep new investments and operational cost to a minimum, the paper proposes to supply energy to some electric railways using fuel cells. The hydrogen storage tanks needed for the fuel cells are replenished by electrolysers fed by a decentralised power generation. This will not only reduce the peak load demand of the railway but can also allow grid-independent operations in case of grid-outages. By utilizing and extending the existing infrastructure of catenary electrified tracks and operating with a standard mobile electrical application, a low maintenance and efficient stationary energy supply is being proposed by this paper, which has not been assessed as a well to wheel approach considering the consumption and storage as part of the solution. A cost- and energy-efficient, decarbonization of the railway industry with decentral solid oxide fuel cells supplied by green hydrogen, stored and buffered in a tank. A proposal for tank size based on a large-scale hydrogen generation park for a specific geographical location combined with a track-based energy consumption model will be the outcome of this paper.