Hydrogen engine design reaches “very significant milestone”…by students!
May 17, 2024The students have built the prototype of the first-of-its-kind unit that is powered by H2
University of Bath engineering students have created and constructed a first-in-the-world hydrogen engine design in the form of a modified single-cylinder gasoline engine.
The unit was specialized with new components to be able to use H2
The team used a specialized control unit and hydrogen-specific fuel injectors. With those components, the modified single-cylinder gasoline engine was reengineered for immediately successful operation.
Until now, major automakers worldwide have struggled with internal combustion engines (ICE) powered by H2. This was the achievement that the students from the University of Bath were able to accomplish, and that could lead to a shift in sustainable power.
Other hydrogen engine designs
It’s true that other companies have created their own H2 ICE designs. That said, they have all faced challenges.
The designs have been a priority for many organizations as the world works to decarbonize, particularly in certain industries such as transportation. Unlike gasoline and diesel, H2 does not produce CO2 emissions when it is used as a fuel in fuel cells or ICE units.
As a result, H2 has become one of the most promising sources of sustainable clean fuel for, ground, air, and marine transport.
Getting started
“We started by reading all of the research and literature we could find, analyzing and cataloguing it all to understand it and prioritize what was possible for us to pull off, as a fairly small team,” said Samuel Ray, the team leader among the students who worked on this project.
Among the primary challenges faced in previous designs had to do with being able to store enough H2 within the vehicle, as this fuel has a high energy density per unit of mass, but a low energy density per unit of volume. Therefore, to make it practical in any way, the issue of volume density needed to be overcome.
To do so, the students were required to compress it, with the choice of keeping it as a gas under a very high pressure or as a liquid, which must be kept at minus 418 degrees Fahrenheit.
They also needed to work on the design safely, doing all hydrogen engine tests outdoors with remote controls while they sheltered behind a protective panel.
A major achievement, though still early on
While the hydrogen engine design is unique and does function, the students were quick to point out that it remains an early build that will still need fine tuning before it is ready for any real-life use.
“Getting the prototype engine running has been a very significant milestone in this project,” said the academic supervisor for the team, Dr. Kevin Robinson. “It’s still early days, but we have completed about three hours of continuous operation so far, including several minutes at full load.”
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I may have written to you a short piece about my new Buoyancy System to make Hybrid type Airships both safe and sustainable so as to meet the Government’s requirements for Net Zero in Air Transport. It has influenced my redesign of the convention airship profile (I call it the Macacat) given how it has allowed for the reintroduction of Hydrogen (H2) as a lifting gas to compliment the main gas, Helium. The unintended consequence is that I have been able to build in an internal Hanger Bay and there allow for a major boost in Lifting capacity. Since it required a series of pressurised H2 gas tanks the idea of capturing any evaporating H2 toward the Hydrogen powered Internal Combustion Engines, reading this article about the breakthrough in this technology, gives me hope that another piece of the innovative jigsaw puzzle to develop my Macacat is potentially, coming to fruition.
I have an old gasoline generator that had its carburetor broken off that I run with pure hydrogen obtained from a welding shop.
I call it a hydrogen fuel sal for salvage.
A few years ago the head of the Engineering School at Colorado State University loved hydrogen. He put on a race during the Sustainable Living Fair for H2 fueled Go-Carts. My son Tai brought his from Utah and I brought mine from Steamboat. We had a K cylinder of H2 from Praxair that we transferred the gas to smaller on board cylinders. Mine had a 5 horse Honda and his had a bigger Briggs. My son Bart drove mine sitting on a Propane bottle filled with hydrogen. Fort Collins blocked the street for us so we could do hot laps all afternoon. We were the only ones with carts and demonstrated how well they ran and how we transferred feuel to the onboard tanks. Dr Albertson said he would fuel any hydrogen fuel car we brought to see him. We both modified vehicles that ran on pure hydrogen and drove them to CSU, but he never did get a dispenser. We have fueled them in Arizona, Pennsylvania and California with pure hydrogen. My Hummer H2H2 will run on five fuels.