The Electric INFINITY TRAIN is charged by gravity.

Fortescue Metals Group, an Australian mining firm, aims to clean up its operations by 2030 while also inventing green solutions that it may sell to others. Through a company named Fortescue Future Industries, which just purchased Williams Advanced Engineering, it’s foraying into green tech. Today, the two firms revealed their first collaboration: an electric “infinity train” transporting iron ore cargoes without recharging.

So, while details are scarce at this time, it appears that the team has calculated that there are enough downhill slope and braking opportunities in the loading direction to charge the battery regeneratively. The train is so much lighter when unloaded that the battery can take it to return to the mine and resume your adventure without the need to get charged.

So it’s a fascinating concept, and we’ll be interested to learn more as it develops – for example, what are the topological parameters that an infinite train like this can operate under? Will it work in wetter locations and have less friction than the Western Australian desert? Is this a very specialized single-use scenario, or will it be rolled out to a larger market? Is it still cost-effective to implement in instances when some charge is necessary during loading and unloading?

This is only one of FFI’s many green-tech projects, which continues to develop. We previously reported on the company’s plans to launch the world’s first ammonia-powered ship, as well as hydrogen fuel cell mining trucks and ammonia-fueled trains, before the end of the year. It’s also establishing itself as a significant worldwide player in green hydrogen production and delivery, with work on a facility in Australia that will more than quadruple the world’s current electrolyzer production capacity already underway.