BMW Still Likes Hydrogen - Sans Fuel Cell

BMW Still Likes Hydrogen - Sans Fuel Cell

By Bill Visnic

BMW AG, long a promoter of hydrogen fuel for fairly conventional internal-combustion engines, said this week its engineers, with the help of other technical partners, have developed a hydrogen-fueled IC engine with diesel-like thermodynamic efficiency.

BMW said the engine, which uses high-pressure injection of gaseous hydrogen directly into the specifically designed combustion chamber, is up to 42 percent efficient, which rivals contemporary diesels, which represent the current top of the combustion-engine food chain -- not to mention most other propulsion alternatives.

Partners in the "H2BVplus" engine project, BMW said, are the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Thermodynamics at Graz University of Technology, HyCentA Research GmbH in Graz, as well as HOERBIGER ValveTec GmbH in Vienna.

The project is sponsored by Austria's Federal Ministry for Transportation, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT).

BMW, with a brand based on emotive internal-combustion engines, has for some time advocated hydrogen fuel for conventional engines as an alternative to the more typically proposed route for clean-burning hydrogen in transportation: as the feedstock for electricity-producing fuel cells.

Most automakers are pursuing the hydrogen fuel-cell route, but Mazda Motor Corp. also has joined BMW in experimenting with hydrogen to fuel IC engines -- in Mazda's case, its celebrated rotary engine. Mazda has in recent years shown vehicles using concept hydrogen-fueled rotary engines.

Last year, BMW engaged in a nationwide tour of roadgoing 7 Series models powered by hydrogen-burning V12s that delivered the fuel-economy equivalent of approximately 25 mpg. BMW also presented the hydrogen-fueled cars to various celebrities and luminaries for extended test-drives.

The most prominent "sell" for hydrogen use in conventional engines, however, is the fact it produces virtually no noxious emissions, including zero carbon dioxide, as there is no carbon in the fuel.

The issue with hydrogen as a fuel for IC engines remains the same as for fuel-cell vehicles: infrastructure to produce and distribute the fuel. California has an initiative to develop a modest hydrogen-fuel infrastructure, but the nation remains all but devoid of publicly accessible hydrogen for any purpose, and the current economic travails of both the nation and the auto industry likely will not help in speeding hydrogen infrastructure investments. 

Photos by BMW

1. Prototype hydrogen fueling station in Berlin, Germany.

2. Computer simulation of hydrogen being injected directly into the combustion chamber of BMW's latest hydrogen-fueled engine.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.