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February 20, 2024
By Micah Wright
Dyno Testing The 100-Percent
Hydrogen-Powered H2-ICE Race Engine
Some months
back, a few members of the Autosport
YouTube channel flew
over to Austria to see what the brainiacs at
AVL RACETECH
have been cooking up in their hydrogen skunkworks kitchen.
Apparently, AVL has been working on a “Hydrogen Internal
Combustion Engine” (H2-ICE)
race engine for a few years now, and testing has gone rather well.
Locked, loaded, and ready for some dyno
documentation, the AVL team immediately set to explaining that
reliable, clean power could efficiently run on the stuff that science
fiction films are built upon. Or at least, explaining how they very
well soon could be powering a race car or two.
Up until
now, H2-ICE technology has been synonymous with
low-performance figures and a lean burn. That, or they produce tons of
power, but have the shelf-life of store-bought sushi. AVL RACETECH has
taken to the task of building an H2-ICE racing engine that
corrects all of these issues, while running both reliably and
incredibly cool. All with no fewer than 200 horsepower per liter mind
you.
So without
further ado, let’s queue the ominous mad scientist music, pour
ourselves a couple of big-ass glasses of H20, and get to
talking hydrogen power for a quick tick on the odometer or two.
Photo Credit: Autosport/YouTube
Making
Hydrogen Racing a Reality
It was back
in 2022, that AVL first teased the idea of creating an engine that was
powered by hydrogen (H2) alone. A 100-percent zero-carbon
engine that was unlike any other H2-ICE that came before
it.
Traditionally, these sorts of engines have relied upon an extremely
lean burn rate for their operation, which needless to say hampers
performance and makes longevity a bit of a crap shoot. Knowing this
full well, AVL set to making its race engine far less of a
“lean-burner,” and one that could match (or best) a comparable
two-liter turbo racing engine in power output.
We’ll
discuss what type of boosted
small-scale engine the
AVL team ended up with here in a rev or two. Just note that AVL
RACETECH dabbles in everything from
LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2) class
cars and Ducati
MotoGP race program
engineering to Dakar
buggies and racing
simulator manufacturing.
So its engine menu options were expansive.
Photo Credit: Autosport/YouTube
"Realizing performance values at
motorsport level with a hydrogen internal combustion engine is an
incredibly complex technical challenge. But our prototype proves it
can be done. — Project Manager Paul Kapus, Manager Development Spark
Ignited Engines & Concept Cars"
Photo Credit: Autosport/YouTube
How To
Keep An H2-ICE Race Engine Alive
What AVL’s
engineers ended up with was a 205-horsepower-per-liter (150 kW per
liter) prototype H2-ICE race engine that doesn’t run nearly
as hot as other types of hydrogen-fueled engines. Furthermore, these
figures proved to be impressively reliable, and solidified the claim
that intelligent PFI water injection could not only moderate
combustion, but improve power outputs as well.
With an
engine speed of 6,500 rpm landing the horsepower figures listed above,
and 369 pound-feet of torque being secured at somewhere between 3,000
to 4,000 rpm, Brake Mean Effective Pressure (BMEP) came out at an even
32 bar. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Photo Credit: Autosport/YouTube
"We are forerunners in many aspects
of motorsport with AVL RACETECH and have now made the decision to
become leaders in the area of hydrogen combustion engines as well.
This is why we are building our own racing engine for the first time
in the more than 20-year history of the AVL motorsport department.
[We] are confident that hydrogen combustion technology will play a
significant role in achieving a zero carbon future in motorsport.—Ellen
Lohr, Director Motorsport AVL"
Photo Credit: Autosport/YouTube
With water
injection being the primary focus, this hydrogen engine’s usage of a
specialized injector design that sprays water into the intake air has
made a massive difference in its capabilities. Not only does this bump
boost pressure, but the evaporated liquid significantly lowers the
temps of the combustion chamber during the cycling process.
AVL
apparently went through a ton of different simulations and 3D flow
calculations when designing these injectors and the valves that would
rely upon their H2O atomization. Air, fuel, and exhaust gas
flows all had to be carefully monitored and benchmarked to make sure
that the the engine was not put through the ringer.
Photo Credit: Autosport/YouTube
Thanks to
that intelligent PFI water injection saturating the engine’s intake
air, the unwanted premature ignition problems often found in
high-performance H2-ICE motors were virtually eliminated.
Of course, this meant tinkering with air-fuel ratios, which ended up
as a Lambda of 1.0, but that’s kind of the purpose of this little
experiment. To see if you can reach a sustainable air-fuel ratio that
still creates impressive, race-grade power.
For all you
chemistry buffs out there noting that these stoichiometric
air-fuel ratios take the engine
safely out of the lean range, take additional note of this next fast
fact. AVL found that the trick to keeping the air oversaturation issue
in check was to simply lower flow by attaching a specialized wastegate,
and then dialing it back so that the turbocharger isn’t force-feeding
too much air into the plenum.
Photo Credit: AVL RACETECH
Hitting
the Watering Hole With a Few Friends
But before
moving on to the next milestone, which involves placing this H2-ICE
engine concept in a car and taking it out on track, some recognition
is due to those who made this engine a reality. If it were not for
Hungarian
HUMDA Lab, AVL RACETECH may never have been able to create the
first race engine to bear its name.
Relatively
unknown over here in America, HUMDA Lab is the leading organization
behind all Hungarian national motorsport research and development
activities and is comprised of a devout group of researchers,
automotive system engineers, motorsport professionals, software
developers, and project managers. All race-engineering-minded
individuals with an eye for creative solutions.
Established
in 2021 as a “nonprofit organization focusing on scientific research,
knowledge transfer, as well as high-tech and infrastructural
developments in motorsports,” this specialized skunkworks operation
has been swiftly shaping the European automotive industry one
revolution at a time since its inception. So to say that this
nonprofit helped make this motor possible would be a sizable
understatement.
Photo Credit: Autosport/YouTube
"The results achieved by our H2
racing engine confirm that we are able to deliver an extremely
competitive package with this technology. The goal of AVL RACETECH is
to lead motorsport into a sustainable future. With the development of
the first racing engine developed under our own name – a
high-performance H2 -ICE – we have taken another step
closer to achieving this vision. — Ellen Lohr, Director
Motorsport AVL"
Photo Credit: Autosport/YouTube
Being that
materials and fit-and-finish were of maximum importance to this
project, AVL RACETECH turned toward one of the best in the biz for the
nuts and bolts of the matter. This meant working closely with
M&H Engineering,
as it played a crucial role in this H2-ICE motor’s birth.
Long revered as one of the international leaders in additive
manufacturing innovation, 3D metal printing, and the finishing of
complex high-end components, it was M&H that made the physical
structure of this engine a reality.
For
internals, AVL summoned
VENTREX,
thanks in part to its reputation for being a global leader in
automotive valve solutions. Designing and producing electronic
pressure regulators for the turbocharged motor and all of the cooling
circuitry needed to keep the hydrogen system running smooth and cool
was tackled by this Austrian powerhouse, and as the video illustrates,
is absolutely brilliant.
And
finally, there was WEISSGERBER
Engineering GmbH, a firm
that can manufacture pretty much anything. WEISSGERBER not only
develops and produces its own line of metrology components and
devices, but it has the capacity to construct one-off ignition
components for spark-ignited combustion in something like a hydrogen
engine for example.
All these companies and people are working
towards a single goal – to maintain the sustainability of internal
combustion in motorsports.
Photo Credit: AVL RACETECH
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