How An Old Train Could Help Fight Climate Change
Researchers at H2M are working on converting an old Green Goat industrial train to one powered by hydrogen, to test its practicality in the fight against climate change.
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Climate change is here and we’re clearly not ready for it. But, the good news is we’re starting to pay more attention, find more causes of pollution, and are trying to help make real change. It’s not clear if we can rectify all the damage we’ve done, but as EVs become more common and scientists make breakthrough discoveries, we have a bit of a chance to help our dire situation.
In recent news, as reported by the BBC, scientists are converting the Green Goat locomotive to run on a mixture of batteries and hydrogen in the name of climate change. This is huge news considering some trains have been rolled out in Germany and the UK that run on hydrogen.
However, those hydrogen-powered trains that are now in use could use some improvements. Currently, storing hydrogen in tanks as a gas is dangerous and costly. The golden ring is to find methods of storing hydrogen in solid forms. It’s this new way of thinking that can really be a game changer in our fight against climate change.
Because hydrogen only emits water as it is burned, and not carbon dioxide, mass the fields of mass transit and logistics could be affected. In reality, people could make all the electric vehicles in the world, but it’s industry that is truly responsible for climate change.
In fact, it only behooves us to combat climate change because it is advantageous to the economy in the US and worldwide. Natural disasters have caused us to spend billions of dollars on clean-up. Saving money is the way to go. In addition, fighting climate change creates more jobs.
Such is the case with H2M—the company converting the locomotive at the top of this story. In its search for a better type of holding device for hydrogen, H2M, Hydrogen in Motion, is an actual company offering hydrogen storage at low cost.
H2M envisions a future where they can help convert entire fleets of trains and maybe one day—even more! Hydrogen, and the way the company stores it, could help more than just cars and buses stop their polluting ways leading to climate change.
H2M has created a new way to hold that hydrogen by creating a nanomaterial that can hold the hydrogen at relatively low pressure. It works similarly to taking the cap off a carbonated drink.
When H2M combines the hydrogen with batteries, the company believes they can run a locomotive for a week. This means cost and money savings for transportation. It also means that we have the potential to save ourselves from climate change.
It is imperative that we solve climate change in even minor ways. If we don’t, we’ll lose our homes and where we buy them, our animals, and our natural surroundings. In fact, climate change is affecting our mental health. More folks are getting stressed about it and climate anxiety is a very real thing for some people.
So, an old train running on hydrogen is a very big deal. Maybe that old Green Goat train can be a front-runner for real change.
