CPKC, headquartered in Calgary, Canada, is the only single-line transnational railway linking Canada, the U.S., and México. With 20,000 route miles and 20,000 employees, it offers unmatched freight rail service to major ports across North America. As a Sustainably Driven company, CPKC is committed to addressing climate change and supporting a lower-carbon future for the continent.

The application of hydrogen technology to the railway systems is at an early stage of commercialization. The passenger rail sector has been the most active in evaluating hydrogen-based propulsion with a number of trains in operation around the world and more being developed. Within the heavy-haul freight rail sector, where energy demands are much greater, deployment has been slower to emerge. As the freight rail sector at-large seeks viable technologies to reduce emissions, CPKC initiated its own development of this technology having successfully completed a conversion of three hydrogen fuel-cell/battery locomotives over the last few years, each of which are undergoing in-service testing within CPKC's operations.

In an effort to better understand the greenhouse gas-related impacts of hydrogen fuel cell/battery technology, CPKC wants the team to evaluate and compare the embedded carbon of technologies in development as low carbon locomotive propulsion solutions.