By designing engines to burn hydrogen from the outset, things like compression ratio, combustion chamber design, and injection methods can all be optimised to suit hydrogen fuel. However, measures can be taken to offset this. Direct injection methods could theoretically allow a hydrogen-burning design to produce 120% of the power of a similar gasoline engine. Low-tech methods of premixing gaseous hydrogen with the intake air charge reduce potential engine power output. However, due largely to the fact that a combustible mixture of hydrogen and air takes up more space in a cylinder that would otherwise be for air, power output would be reduced by 20-30% compared to the same engine burning gasoline, assuming the hydrogen is injected prior to intake valve closure. In fact, virtually any existing gasoline engine can be converted to run on hydrogen simply by replacing the fuel injectors with parts suitable for injecting hydrogen instead. The basics of a hydrogen-burning combustion engine are largely the same as any gasoline engine out there. It’s a potential way to reduce pollution output while avoiding the hassles of long recharge times with battery electric technologies. Thus, there’s great incentive to explore the substitution of existing transportation fuels with hydrogen. When burned in atmospheric air, the result is much the same, albeit with small amounts of nitrogen oxides produced. Burning hydrogen in pure oxygen produces only water as a byproduct. The benefit of a hydrogen-burning engine is that unlike burning fossil fuels, the emissions from burning hydrogen are remarkably clean. Toyota has recently been exploring the technology, and has announced a racecar sporting a three-cylinder hydrogen-burning engine will compete in this year’s Fuji Super TEC 24 Hour race. In contrast to fuel cell technologies, which combine hydrogen with oxygen through special membranes in order to create electricity, these engines do it the old fashioned way – in flames. One of the most interesting technologies in this area are hydrogen-burning combustion engines. Toyota’s upcoming Corolla Sport-based hydrogen-burning racer. History is rarely so cut and dry, however, and new technologies aim to keep the combustion engine alive for some time yet.
With the rise of usable electric cars in the marketplace, and markets around the world slowly phasing out the sale of fossil fuel cars, you could be forgiven for thinking that the age of the internal combustion engine is coming to an end.
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