Bosch plans to launch a hydrogen combustion engine in 2024, concluding the work in this field that began in 2016. These engines are seen as a way to achieve zero emissions with slightly adapted conventional-style engines, both for competition and for the street. In 2023, Bosch and Ligier already revealed a prototype with a hydrogen combustion engine around a 3.0-liter V6 biturbo block.
Despite the advances of electric vehicles in the last ten years, hydrogen remains a hot topic for a handful of automakers that have developed and produced commercial models with fuel cells. You might guess who we’re talking about: Toyota, BMW, and Honda.
And while all three are investing in electric vehicles, they also envision a future where hydrogen fuel cell vehicles of all sizes coexist with battery electric vehicles, playing a significant role in the zero-emission ecosystem.
How does a hydrogen engine work? But those fuel cell vehicles are not the only ones we might see in that shining future. This year, at CES, the German giant Bosch provided new details about its plans for a different way of using hydrogen to power cars: a hydrogen engine. And it is expected to be ready by the end of this year.
“The company is also working on components for a hydrogen engine, which directly transforms this fuel into energy without converting it into electricity beforehand,” Bosch stated in a press release. “Once fueled with green hydrogen, this engine is practically carbon-neutral.
One of the last times we saw hydrogen engines in production cars was under the hood of BMW sedans about 20 years ago when BMW built a small fleet of modified Series 7 demonstration cars that could burn hydrogen.
That prototype, the 750hL, featured a V12 capable of running on gasoline or hydrogen, effectively becoming a hybrid car. The hydrogen tank ensured a range of 400 km, allowing the driver to switch to the gasoline tank when needed.
Those BMW experiments, despite being impressive from an engineering perspective, did not deliver unique performance or anything resembling benefits for the average driver. On the contrary, they would have to contend with finding gasoline and hydrogen refueling stations, in addition to the costs of a BMW Series 7 with a V12 engine.
Certainly, this was 25 years ago. Since then, internal combustion engines have become more efficient, and some fuel cell vehicles have also entered the market.
Hydrogen comes to the rescue of sports cars
Bosch Engineering has partnered with Ligier Automotive to build a prototype based on the Ligier JS2 R competition model, which they unveiled at the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year. This prototype features a converted 3.0-liter biturbo engine designed to burn hydrogen, with a modified injection system delivering 563 horsepower and 650 Nm of torque.
Of course, the intentions of a racing car with such an engine and something oriented towards efficiency are different. However, the experiment demonstrated that high-performance vehicles with combustion engines can be quite environmentally friendly, both on and off the racetrack.Bosch looks far beyond manufacturers who already offer hydrogen models, towards a future where hydrogen could be much more common and available for refueling in gasoline-hydrogen hybrid vehicles that fill their tanks alongside fuel cell vehicles.
Nevertheless, the latter and electric vehicles would be its main competitors, at least if the manufacturers continue to offer them while the number of hydrogen refueling stations increases in parallel.
It goes without saying that any future involving hydrogen vehicles depends on refueling stations achieving greater coverage than we have seen so far. So, things still need to happen before this hydrogen future becomes a reality.
SOURCE: CAR AND DRIVERS
Main image: Bosch
Video: YouTube- Ligier Automotive
Original article in Spanish:
https://www.caranddriver.com/es/movilidad/sostenibilidad-ecologia/a46353343/bosch-motor-hidrogeno/
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