Russian Railways, the national rail operator, has been increasingly using biofuel to heat railroad cars at unelectrified sections of Russian railroads, Bellona.ru reports.
Trains are reportedly equipped with about 300 boilers that use biofuel pellets, and about 6,000 tons of biofuel is consumed each year.
Specifically, biofuel pellets are used at railroad sections in the Moscow, Northern, South Urals and Northern Caucasian regions. Russian Railways is said to have plans to completely stop using coal in favor of biofuel pellets and (wherever possible) electricity.
An estimated 15% of Russia’s railroads are not powered by electricity, and it’s in that areas that coal has been widely used. However, a toxicity factor in railroad passenger cars heated by coal is five times the admissible maximum level in Russia, recent research showed.
When using biofuel pellets, the factor is said to be 15-to-20 times lower than the admissible maximum.
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