High-pressure systems specialist Wystrach is providing the tank systems for full-scale production of Alstom’s Coradia iLint.

“We’re delighted that Alstom awarded us the contract for this prestigious project,”Wystrach managing director Jochen Wystrach says. In its capacity as a systems supplier, Wystrach is providing the components pre-assembled for installation at Alstom’s production facility in Salzgitter.

“For each railcar, we supply two fuel tank compositions (FTCs), each consisting of four modules plus a control system, which were specially developed for installation on the roof of the trains,” explains Wolfgang Wolter, also managing director at Wystrach. With a full tank, the Coradia iLint has a range of around 1,000 kilometers.

The Coradia iLint is the world’s first passenger train powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. In July 2018, the new train became the first of its kind to receive approval for passenger service in Germany. Two models of the train have been in regular service in Lower Saxony for ten months now, both producing zero CO2 emissions. The trains have now completed over 100,000 kilometers in commercial operation and Dr. Jörg Nikutta, Managing Director for Germany and Austria at Alstom, is “thoroughly satisfied” with how they are performing.

With Lower Saxony’s regional public transport organization, Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen, having ordered 14 of the hydrogen-powered trains, its Hessian counterpart, Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), has now followed suit: in May 2019, RMV ordered 27 Coradia iLints—the largest fleet of fuel cell trains in the world.