Canadian Pacific Hydrogen Locomotive (Supplied)

By Alessia Proietti

Bilton Welding and Manufacturing Ltd

Innisfail company converts diesel engines to hydrogen locomotives for Canadian Pacific

Mar 9, 2023 | 9:53 AM

A company in the Town of Innisfail is making energy waves converting diesel railway engines to hydrogen-electric ones that are carbon-emission free for Canadian Pacific’s Hydrogen Locomotive Program.

“The engines that leave our facility, when they’re running on hydrogen, they produce no waste. The only by-product that comes out of that engine is water,” said Robert Bilton, Chief Executive Officer and President of Bilton Welding and Manufacturing Limited.

The custom manufacturer says they were approached by Canadian Pacific (CP) for the research and development project due to their experience in the hydrogen market. They began by building a prototype for one type of engine and, after testing its feasibility, began work on a second larger engine. Bilton says these engines are used in CP railyards to assemble various carts for trains, among other uses.

He says the team is now working on their third and largest engine to produce 7,000 horsepower for long haul railway trips.

Bilton explained that once the engines are filled with hydrogen, the chemical element passes through fuel cells, made by a Canadian company called Ballard Power Systems, to then create electricity. Fuel cells, similar to batteries, have two electrodes, a negative, where hydrogen would be fed through, and a positive, where air would be fed through, around an electrolyte. While a battery stores energy for later use, a fuel cell creates instant energy by converting constant fuel such as hydrogen.

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While the manufacturer creates simply the engines and doesn’t have the details on where CP sources their hydrogen from, Bilton explains there are various ways companies are producing hydrogen to then convert to power. He says they themselves are working on other projects that capture the carbon dioxide from bio-methanol, which is produced from waste, and convert it to hydrogen rather than it being released into the atmosphere. Another of his projects changes natural gas into hydrogen, which does create some waste, but can be sequestered in a carbon capture process.

The CEO confirms work is still underway as to how many engines Bilton will manufacture for CP as well as the details for how long the engines can run for while pulling freight on railway.

“Let’s put it this way, there will be no problems getting trains form Alberta to Vancouver,” he said. “There are fill stations that will be put in just the same as the fill stations for cars all across North America as the system develops.”

While the first engine took a few months to build, Bilton says that was largely due to supply chain issues during the pandemic. He says once they are contracted to mass produce the engines, he believes they can build one a month or even more.

Bilton described his long history in spearheading green energy initiatives in the region, dating back to when he opened the company in 1993. It was during the 2008 downturn that he says he realized there needed to be more diversification in the province.

“I talked to the Energy Minister at the time and they’re all like, ‘Well why would you do that? We make such good revenues off of oil and gas; it’s crazy to think about doing something else.’ I was somewhat frustrated with that, and you can only do so much as a small company, but it was certainly foremost in my mind that there needs to be a transition and if not us, then who starts to make these transitions,” he said.

He began in solar energy projects in Innisfail, later completing one for CP, where he developed a working relationship with the company. Today, his hydrogen engines are making headlines around the world, as far as England, Bilton states.

“It’s up to every one of us to take care of our environment, shepherd in a new era of more environmentally responsible ways of producing energy. We have a great opportunity in Alberta because of the skills that we have in this province that stem from our background in oil and gas, which are somewhat transferable to all sorts of different technologies. We have that human resource, we’ve had many years of financial resources, because this is such a lucrative industry that we’re involved in with oil and gas, and it’s really appropriate for us in Alberta to make this transition,” he said.

Bilton credited the town for being a large supporter of all his projects, claiming council and administration are forward thinking, progressive, and environmentally conscious.

“They’re great to work with, they listen, they actually feel like someone is a partner in everything you do because they want to help you through the bottlenecks and the loopholes and the challenges in developing a facility,” he said.

Mayor Jean Barclay confirmed that for their current project, Bilton needed to construct a rail spur through a portion of the town’s operation, which would require the smashing of gravel and rearranging of the area. She says they were in full support as the company is a large employer in the town and credited CP for getting the job done in a short timeframe.

“It’s going to be mean, in the future, more jobs for the community and more economic development,” she said, describing the potential. “I believe that we are seeing hydrogen will be the fuel of choice for heavy transport such as large trucks and locomotives.”