Hydro combustion engines

[Gingerpower]

I have been pondering the idea of trying to create a hydrogen gas combustion engine for a while. Using electrolysis to split hydrogen and oxygen to use water to fuel the engine. However, I do not have the automotive back ground or lots of experience as I am still a undergraduate. Creating stacked water and purification, the pressure and seals needed to inject the gas into the engine as well as other process I have looked into but have no way to test. If anyone has any details to add so I can add to my notes or help test. It would be amazing. Thank you for reading

[pzkpfw]

The first thing you need to figure out, is where the energy for electrolysis comes from.

 

Don't say "the engine".

[Enthalpy]

Personally, I wouldn't use the hydrogen in a combustion engine. The efficiency is limited, a combustion engine lacks flexibility (minimum rpm for instance), it's heavy. I feel much better to use the hydrogen in a fuel cell to power electric motors: efficient, silent, flexible.

 

One difficulty of burning hydrogen is that is always detonates. A slow combustion is very difficult to obtain, and even with continuous injection of hydrogen and oxygen or air, the flame uses to be a succession of local detonations. Quite destructive for an engine.

 

An other difficulty is that it leaks easily. Worse than other gases.

 

Hydrogen storage is a BIG difficulty, with no real good solution up to now - whether for a combustion engine or a fuel cell.

 

Also, any internal combustion engine that burns a gas is inherently more difficult, because the fuel volume must be compressed too, which costs energy. Compressing 2H₂+O₂+4N₂ costs 7/5 as much as with a liquid fuel. But if the hydrogen is stored under pressure, you may inject it after the air compression in the cycle.

[sethoflagos]

I have been pondering the idea of trying to create a hydrogen gas combustion engine for a while. Using electrolysis to split hydrogen and oxygen to use water to fuel the engine. However, I do not have the automotive back ground or lots of experience as I am still a undergraduate. Creating stacked water and purification, the pressure and seals needed to inject the gas into the engine as well as other process I have looked into but have no way to test. If anyone has any details to add so I can add to my notes or help test. It would be amazing. Thank you for reading

 

I don't think many reading this would be in a position to 'help test' anything here unless they happened to be working within an organisation developing this technology. And they're hardly likely to divulge their proprietary secrets to a stranger in an open forum are they?

 

Pressurised hydrogen is not a material you can safely handle in any garden shed development programme. As mentioned above, keeping it contained is particularly difficult and way beyond the capabilities of the inexperienced layman. If you really want to get into the field, probably the only practical way is to get a good mechanical engineering degree with a hefty loading of thermo and materials science, and apply to one of the automotive companies working in this area.

 

Having said that, there's no harm in a bit of theoretical research via google (much more effective than asking questions on an open internet forum). Start with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_internal_combustion_engine_vehicle and follow the linked references where ever they lead.

 

Btw We generally don't produce hydrogen in bulk by electrolysis. Steam reforming of natural gas is far more cost effective. But you don't want to try that in a garden shed either.

[DrP]

Let me be the third to say that Hydrogen storage is very difficult to achieve safely - It will find EVERY possible leak in a system that is sound for any other gas - it is the smallest molecule there is so it works its way through things far too easily.

 

Also - if you aren't storing hydrogen then how to split it from water? Fuel cells?

Edited August 17, 2016 by DrP

[Moreno]

Let me be the third to say that Hydrogen storage is very difficult to achieve safely - It will find EVERY possible leak in a system that is sound for any other gas - it is the smallest molecule there is so it works its way through things far too easily.

 

Also - if you aren't storing hydrogen then how to split it from water? Fuel cells?

 

If I no make mistake, Helium molecule is smaller than Hydrogen.