East Japan Railway (JR East) has unveiled a hydrogen-powered test train with a cutting-edge fuel cell and battery system.
HYBARI, which stands for Hydrogen-Hybrid Advanced Rail Vehicle for Innovation, is Japan’s first such test train. JR East will begin testing the two-car train on the Nanbu Line and a few other lines in late March, with commercial service expected in 2030.
High-pressure hydrogen is pumped from a train storage tank into a Toyota-developed fuel cell system, which generates electricity through chemical reactions with oxygen in the air. The electricity is then sent to the batteries, which can then be used to power the locomotives.
The test train’s development cost was around $4 billion, and it can travel up to 140 kilometers on a single charge of hydrogen. JR East hopes that an overhaul of its train fleet with HYBARI technology will help them achieve their goal of effectively reducing carbon dioxide emissions to zero by fiscal 2050.
