• Our company is one of the ten Spanish companies involved in the Hympulso Project to design and build an innovative propulsion system based on renewable hydrogen fuel cells
• For the first time in the world, this system will be installed in a high-speed train.

Ten Spanish companies have joined forces to design and build a propulsion system based on renewable hydrogen fuel cells and install it, for the first time in the world, in a high-speed train.

Grouped together in the Hympulso project, these entities will design a set of technologies applicable to the Talgo 250 'all-terrain' train, which would allow electrifying the railway network with energy generated entirely from renewable sources, even in those lines that do not have catenary.

Specifically, Ingeteam will design, manufacture and test reversible high-power DC/DC converters capable of charging the batteries from the catenary.

Our company is one of the five partners in the project, led by Talgo. The other four are EPowerlabs, Optimus3D, Repsol and Sener. There are also three collaborating entities (Ikerlan, Universidad Pontificia de Comillas and Tecnalia), while Adif will act as an observer.

The initiative received a €6.5 million grant in January and is part of the incentive programme for the innovative value chain and knowledge of renewable hydrogen, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

Hympulso will have a holistic approach: it will activate the entire renewable hydrogen value chain, from generation to consumption, in the railway system. The project will also make it possible to analyse the impact that the future transition will have on the different assets of the railway infrastructure managed by Adif, such as maintenance facilities or the track itself.

This will result in both mobile and stationary hydrogen fueling facilities adapted to railways and a pioneering prototype of a hybrid bimodal train for passengers with gauge change, which will be able to run on both conventional and high-speed networks, using catenary power where available, or hydrogen and batteries on non-electrified corridors.

This holistic perspective is key because, in order to address the many major technological challenges posed by the adoption of renewable hydrogen in rail transport, the involvement of multiple actors at all levels, both public and private, will be necessary.

The Hympulso project is part of the 'Value chain: design, demonstration and validation of hydrogen-powered mobility' call, which forms part of the SPERT (Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation) for renewable energies, renewable hydrogen and storage (ERHA). In the resolution of the call for proposals, this project received the highest score for the soundness of its technical proposal and its innovative nature.

The designation of SPERT identifies a sector as a key area for the future of the economy. In total, twelve strategic projects have been approved, dedicated to areas such as the development of electric and connected vehicles, renewable energies, renewable hydrogen and storage, cutting-edge health, the agri-food sector, the new language economy, the circular economy model, the shipbuilding industry, aerospace, the digitalization of the water cycle, microchips, as well as the social and care economy and the decarbonisation of the industry.

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