North American railway holding company Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) has revealed it will double the size of its hydrogen-powered test fleet in 2025.
This year, the company will deploy three additional hydrogen-powered locomotives along with a tender car. By late 2025, CPKC plans to expand its hydrogen fleet further with four more hydrogen locomotives.
Additionally, the Canadian rail company claimed it’s making “significant strides” with its Hydrogen Locomotive Programme.
In an online statement, CPKC said, “[The programme] has swiftly progressed from initial movement trials to recording more than 6,000 miles in freight service testing by the end of 2024.”
Keith Creel, CPKC’s President and CEO, said the firm is “committed” to improving its locomotive operating efficiency and advancing real-world testing of hydrogen locomotives.
“Shipping by rail is the most fuel-efficient way to move goods and our Climate Mileposts report outlines the steps we are taking to further advance the potential for future decarbonisation of the CPKC locomotive fleet,” Creel explained.
Traditionally, troubled Canadian fuel cell developer Ballard Power Systems has supplied its 200kW fuel cell engines to CPKC for use in its hydrogen locomotives. Ballard revealed last year it would implement a restructuring programme to save 30% in spending, however.
Read more:Canadian Pacific orders an additional 2.4MW of Ballard’s fuel cell engines
Last November, CPKC and ATCO EnPower completed the construction of two hydrogen production and refuelling facilities in Canada to support its hydrogen-powered operations.
Each boasting a 1MW electrolyser, compression, storage and dispensing systems, the Calgary installation is using renewable power from CPKC’s existing 5MW solar farm to power electrolysis.
Read more:CPKC launches two refuelling facilities in Canada for hydrogen locomotives
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