Development, application and optimization of hydrogen refueling processes for railway vehicles

In recent years, numerous hydrogen-powered rail vehicles have been developed, and their deployment within public transport is steadily increasing. To avoid disadvantages compared to diesel vehicles, refueling times of 15 min are stated in the industry as target, independent of climate zones or vehicle configurations. As refueling time varies with these parameters, this work presents the corresponding refueling times and defines optimization potentials. A simulation model was set up and parametrized with a reference vehicle and hydrogen refueling station from the FCH2RAIL project. Measurement data from this station and vehicle were analyzed and compared to simulation results for model validation. The results show that at high ambient temperature pre-cooling reduces refueling time by 71 % and type 4 tanks increase refueling time by 20 % compared to type 3. Overall, optimized tank design and thermal management reduce the refueling time for rail vehicles from over 2 h to 15 min.