Sweden unveils first biogas train

A Swedish company has produced the world's first biogas train and hope to market it in the Baltic and especially in developing countries, where stretches of rail tracks use diesel engines in the absence of electricity. The biogas train "Amanda" has been jointly developed by Tekniska Verk, a Swedish biogas company, and Swedish railways subsidiary EuroMaint.

The prototype has been built by replacing the diesel motors in a 25-year-old engine with modern gas-driven motors, the same used in some of the biogas-driven buses. A biogas train can driven for 600 km, running at a maximum speed of 135 km per hour. Sweden's first biogas train has just entered into service. Biogas is renewable, and it reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 98 percent as well as nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons by two thirds compared to diesel.

Further details are available from EuroMaint: www.euromaint.com