Undergraduates develop hydrogen-powered engine

A group of undergraduate students has built and successfully operated a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine.

Engineering students at the University of Bath switched on their single-cylinder engine for the first time in March, and it worked seamlessly.

Their work stands out because despite significant efforts by major automotive manufacturers to advance the technology, hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines are not commercially accessible.

The project began last year. It started as a group business design project for the team members’ coursework. At first, none of the team members knew anything about hydrogen fuel or what was needed to make the engine work.

The fifteen members of the Bath Hydrogen team are third- and fourth-year students enrolled in integrated mechanical and electrical engineering, automotive engineering, and mechanical engineering courses.

The team was established as a successor to Team Bath Racing, one of the UK’s most prosperous Formula Student racing teams. The initiative was shut down in 2022 due to a determination to concentrate on developing zero-emission vehicles rather than gasoline-powered racing cars.

According to the engineers, the motivation for pursuing this technology lies in hydrogen’s potential as a carbon-neutral fuel, coupled with the impending ban on the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles commencing in 2035.

Additionally, the University’s extensive research experience with hydrogen as a fuel and energy storage medium encouraged the team to concentrate on developing a race car powered by hydrogen.

The team’s sponsor, Vanguard, provided a modified single-cylinder gasoline engine for the Bath Hydrogen engine.

With support from Link Engine Management, who supplied a specialized electronic control unit (ECU), and Clean Air Power, who furnished the engine with new hydrogen-specific fuel injectors, the team successfully re-engineered the engine.

The test engine has enabled the team to enhance its skills and capacities before converting a 2.3-liter Ford Ecoboost engine to run on hydrogen fuel in the upcoming academic year.

The team will use a Ginetta G20 racing vehicle equipped with a Ford unit to attempt several land speed class records for hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines.

The primary benefit of hydrogen as a fuel over gasoline is that it produces no CO2 when used, but there are also several drawbacks. Engineers claim that storing enough fuel in the car is challenging. This is because hydrogen has a very high energy density per unit mass but a very low energy density per unit volume.

The available solutions involve storing hydrogen as a highly compressed gas under very high pressure or as a liquid at approximately -250°C, which poses substantial challenges compared to traditional petrol storage methods.

According to researchers, for safety compliance, the test rig housing the prototype engine needs to be operated outdoors and controlled remotely through a panel.