Photo/Illutration Central Japan Railway Co. is studying ways to substitute a hydrogen engine for a diesel engine in hybrid technology that is being used in train cars of the Hida limited express, such as the one seen here at JR Nagoya Station on July 1, 2022. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

NAGOYA--Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) is chugging toward developing hybrid train cars that are partially powered by a hydrogen engine, company officials announced.

The officials said on Nov. 16 that the attempt, a world's first, will allow a train to operate with near-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

“We want to have a variety of optional means,” JR Tokai President Shunsuke Niwa said in explaining why his company is expanding its research to include hydrogen engines in the effort to decarbonize railways. 

The Nagoya-based railroad operator will start conducting mock trial runs indoors on the technology as early as next year with an eye toward helping the government’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality in Japan by 2050.

The effort will draw on the diesel-hybrid technology of JR Tokai’s HC85 Series rolling stock, which is being used in the Hida and the Nanki limited express trains.

As things now stand, train cars of the series are driven by motors that are powered by a main storage battery and a diesel engine, which is fueled by light oil to run an electrical generator. That engine will be replaced with one that is fueled by hydrogen.

JR Tokai is emitting some 70,000 tons of CO2 annually. More than half of that amount derives from fuel for train cars that operate along nonelectrified sections of the company’s rail network, including the Takayama and Kisei lines.

As part of efforts toward decarbonization, the company has already started research on train cars powered by biofuel diesel engines and hydrogen fuel cells.

But the study on those trains has faced conundrums, including the cost of fuel procurement and a need to ensure enough output capacity for allowing the trains to travel uphill. No prospect is therefore yet in sight for putting those technologies to practical use.

Studies are under way on the use of hydrogen as fuel for the goal of going carbon-free, because no CO2 is emitted when hydrogen is burned. Automaker Toyota Motor Corp. is also working hard to develop hydrogen engines.

Experts, however, have pointed out problems with the use of hydrogen as fuel. CO2 is emitted, for example, when hydrogen is prepared with the current mainstream technology.

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