All Aboard for Carbon Neutrality

A guest article by Dr.-Ing. Benjamin Graf, Senior Officer at the Executive Board of Deutsche Bahn AG in the area of quality assurance and excellence assessment.

At Deutsche Bahn, we produce mobility. Particularly when it comes to CO2-neutral production, a surprising number of parallels can be found with Fraunhofer IPK’s production research.

Two topics that, at first glance, are completely different: producing mobility and producing material goods. But the same procedures for CO2-neutral value creation and associated findings from research also apply to the production of mobility.

First of all resource usage has to be designed to be CO2-neutral. Production research teaches us a precise understanding of the CO2 expenditure associated with the use of materials. This is equally true for the use of resources when mobility is your product, as is the case for Deutsche Bahn. The most important resource here is energy. Deutsche Bahn is using more and more green electricity for this purpose. Long-distance trains are already running on 100 percent green electricity. By 2025, all stationary facilities, i.e., train stations, maintenance plants and office buildings, will be converted. And, as with the use of materials for the production of tangible goods, it is crucial to always keep sufficient resources on hand, even for increasing demand. To meet the greater demand for green power, DB recently signed its first transnational green power contract. Starting in 2023, hydroelectric power from Norway will help the company achieve annual CO2 savings of 146,000 metric tons. Green electricity from Germany will also be sourced from hydropower plants. The Saalach power plant in Bad Reichenhall is operated by DB Energie itself. Increasing energy efficiency is also a key factor in both production targets. To this end, modern trains use systems that recover braking energy and feed it back into the overhead line.

A challenge for CO2-neutral value creation: Increasing demand requires scaling during ongoing production. Quality management has an important contribution to make here.

Delays occur in particular at points where the existing infrastructure is heavily utilized or the usual capacities on the line are restricted by necessary construction work. In the area of quality auditing at Deutsche Bahn, we assess the resulting risks to operations in preventive audits. We then derive measures to minimize the risks. These include, for example, strengthening the fallback levels and the robustness of the infrastructure on diversion routes. We are working closely together within the Integrated Rail System to implement the measures. The aim is to provide mobility for our customers in the highest possible quality while scaling our production system to meet the high demand for CO2-neutral mobility.

Dr.-Ing. Benjamin Graf

© Fraunhofer IPK/Katharina Strohmeier

has been working for the Corporate Management of Deutsche Bahn AG in the area of quality testing and excellence assessment since 2020. He deals with construction sites, punctuality and the optimization of operational processes. At Fraunhofer IPK, Graf earned his doctorate in the subject of laser metal deposition and headed the Joining and Coating Technology department. »I have been benefiting greatly from the experience gained from production-oriented research at Fraunhofer IPK in my current work on the production of mobility. It is always important to focus on customer benefits and adapt the technical solutions accordingly.«