Written by
Marybeth Luczak, editor-in-chief
The new zero-emission switcher, which replaces a tier-0 diesel generator, will integrate a hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen storage, advanced battery and system control technologies.
The Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) is providing $ 500,000 to support the development of the hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) powered switch for the Sierra Northern Railway. In addition, Phoenix Contact and ClearBlade have entered into a partnership for an Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) solution for the rail, oil and gas, energy and industrial markets.
Sierra Northern, based in Woodland, California, announced in March that it would decommission a diesel locomotive and replace it with an HFC-powered shunter, funded in part by a $ 4 million grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC). SoCalGas has been named a technical partner and announced on July 28 that it would provide project funding.
The new zero-emission shunter will replace a Tier-0 diesel in order to “demonstrate the potential of HFC technology to reduce air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions in traffic,” according to the short line that runs around 120 kilometers in Mendocino , Tuloumne, Stanislaus and Yolo Counties. It will integrate HFC, hydrogen storage, advanced battery and system control technologies.
Kennan H. Beard III, President of the Sierra Northern Railway
Sierra North acts as the technical lead for the project; GTI, a Des Plaines, Illinois-based not-for-profit research, development, and education organization is the formal applicant for the CEC. Other technical partners include Railpower Tech LLC, Ballard Power Systems (the 19th Valley Vision, Speed Strategies, Frontier Energy and the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District.
“We believe HFC-powered locomotives can play an important role in reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the railways that serve California’s ports and warehouses,” said Neil Navin, vice president of SoCalGas, Clean Energy Innovations. “This research is only part of our efforts to advance the clean fuel transition in California and supports our commitment to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions in our operations and energy supplies by 2045.”
“Sierra Northern Railway is excited to partner with SoCalGas to design, build and test the shunter,” said Kennan H. Beard III, President of Sierra Northern. “Without your support, the next step in building this important zero-emission locomotive would not be possible. This demonstration will help improve local air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, noise and odors for the communities living near ports across California. “
The combination of ClearBlade‘s Intelligent Assets platform and Phoenix contact‘s open PLCnext-based Edge Gateway will enable customers to leverage “the power and agility” of industrial IoT, said Pat McCurdy, vice president of Industry Management and Automation at Phoenix Contact USA, which develops and manufactures industrial electrical and electronic equipment . Products. “Thanks to the powerful yet intuitive interface of Intelligent Assets, our customers get immediate insights into operations without any programming effort,” he explained.
The ClearBlade Phoenix Contact solution – including hardware, connectivity, edge and cloud services – is intended to “offer 100% remote monitoring that breathes life into old SCADA systems and makes new sensors plug and play”.
Categories: Class I, Freight, News, Short Lines & Regionals, Switching & Terminal
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