if hydrogen trains can approach the operational cost of electric trains
That's exceptionally unlikely.
You go from "use electricity to run a train" to "use electricity to run an electrolyseur, fill hydrogen into hydrogen tanks on the train, use hydrogen to power a fuel cell to generate electricity, use that electricity to run a train".
You need to add "build electric lines over entire length railway" to the left side of the equation and "build a hydrogen locomotive" to the right side.
Hydrogen is easier to store than electricity, and you can produce it at times where electricity price is zero or negative (very sunny days at photovoltaic plants, very windy days at wind turbine plants, 3am at nuclear plants). Processes more efficient than electrolysis do exist.
I suppose safe storage and transportation of hydrogen is a major cost, though. Hydrogen gets absorbed into metals, because their crystalline lattices act like sponges for molecules this small. Worse yet, hydrogen can seep through things that work as impenetrable solids for other gases. And hydrogen flame is all but invisible (most radiation is infrared, nearly no visible light).
Comments
That's exceptionally unlikely. You go from "use electricity to run a train" to "use electricity to run an electrolyseur, fill hydrogen into hydrogen tanks on the train, use hydrogen to power a fuel cell to generate electricity, use that electricity to run a train".
You need to add "build electric lines over entire length railway" to the left side of the equation and "build a hydrogen locomotive" to the right side.
Hydrogen is easier to store than electricity, and you can produce it at times where electricity price is zero or negative (very sunny days at photovoltaic plants, very windy days at wind turbine plants, 3am at nuclear plants). Processes more efficient than electrolysis do exist.
I suppose safe storage and transportation of hydrogen is a major cost, though. Hydrogen gets absorbed into metals, because their crystalline lattices act like sponges for molecules this small. Worse yet, hydrogen can seep through things that work as impenetrable solids for other gases. And hydrogen flame is all but invisible (most radiation is infrared, nearly no visible light).