Hydrogen Combustion Engine | FerrariChat

Hydrogen Combustion Engine

Discussion in 'General Automotive Discussion' started by ChadR, Dec 14, 2019.

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  1. ChadR

    ChadR Karting

    Jun 19, 2019
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    Taj B
    We need a hydrogen combustion engine.
    It's the only way to keep motorsport exciting.

    Let's not reinvent the wheel, but instead improve upon it.
     
  2. technom3

    technom3 F1 World Champ
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    Mar 29, 2007
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    Justin
    Many major manufacturers did this. The problem is hydrogen is less dense in energy and makes about half the hp
     
  3. ChadR

    ChadR Karting

    Jun 19, 2019
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    Central Florida
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    Taj B
    True, but it's the only way to preserve the ice if the "emissions posse" gets too powerful. 2000hp cars exist, and most people can live with less than 1000 hp in their sports car.
     
  4. Jason Crandall

    Jason Crandall F1 Veteran

    Mar 25, 2004
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    Lots of hydrogen cars being shown at Frankfurt motor show this year. Some good videos on youtube.
     
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  5. technom3

    technom3 F1 World Champ
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    But those 2000hp cars don't idle well are loud and need to be rebuilt.about every 100 miles.or less.
     
  6. boxerman

    boxerman F1 World Champ
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    My understading is we can run much higher compression ratios with hydrogen so that compensates for the lower energy density with a given sized motor. Or put another way effiecint combustion coupled with relative fuel consumption going up to maintain power of a given power unit.
    Of course we need a source of hydrogen.

    I think in time when the world goes all electric petrolium fuel will find its niche places, motorsprts being one, aircaft and boats being another. I dont see the electric fishing trawler anytime soon, and while a jet engine can run well on hydrogen, you cant store it in the wings. Looking at Jetliner design and proposals the assumption is still petrolium fuel for 50 years or more.

    Yeah the world is all anti carbon, but when the civillian transport fleet is all electric will people be bothered by a few petrolium cars? Even then we can switch to pure alcohol fuels.

    A hydrogen powered microburbine-electric with capacitors for boost sounds like a great idea though. Jaguar tried it couldnt productionise it on a hypercar, dont know why. It would sound like one of those 50s buck rogers machines.
     
  7. Tcar

    Tcar F1 Rookie

    Waiting for the first car mfg to name their new green car "The Greta".... :)
     
  8. BMW.SauberF1Team

    BMW.SauberF1Team F1 World Champ

    Dec 4, 2004
    14,244
    Nah, they need to make an energy efficient way to produce ethanol from waste food and waste plant material (cellulosic). Ethanol can produce more power and runs cleaner and cooler than gasoline. There's a lot of waste material out there that can be made into ethanol.

    A bigger challenge would be to turn plastic into oil again and use for fuel. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b03841

    That plastic idea could use that array of mirrors and salt tower Bill Gates was backing (not a new concept btw) to get massive amounts of heat by using sunlight.
     
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  9. tomc

    tomc Two Time F1 World Champ

    Apr 13, 2014
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    Most hydrogen is made on an industrial scale from fossil fuels. I saw a paper that said you could "burn" water to get hydrogen, but you need a nuke plant for that. Not exactly a plan designed to make greenies happy!
    T
     
  10. TheMayor

    TheMayor Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    Hydrogen is not green. We get it from natural gas. Using a lot of energy we break it down and get hydrogen and C02. We release the C02 into the atmosphere.

    Then we take the hydrogen, mix it with oxygen, and burn it.

    You would be better off just burning natural gas.
     

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