A hydrogen engine for passenger cars that uses hydrogen as fuel has been developed for the first time in Korea amid fierce competition for hydrogen mobility technology around the world.
A joint research team led by Dr. Choi Young of the Mobility Powertrain Research Center at the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) under the Ministry of Science and ICT and Baek Hong-gil, a research fellow of Hyundai Motor, has developed a direct injection hydrogen engine that uses 100 percent hydrogen fuel and demonstrated the engine’s excellence through performance evaluations.
The KIMM-Hyundai Motor Joint Research Team realized the stable operation of the engine of a Hyundai hybrid vehicle by injecting hydrogen directly into the combustion chamber of the engine at a pressure of more than 30 atmospheres and using a turbocharger to boost the engine’s performance and maintaining high thermal efficiency in all areas from the engine’s start to a rise in load.
In a port injection hydrogen engine, the space occupied by hydrogen fuel in the gaseous state reduces the inflow of air into the combustion chamber, lowering efficiency and weakening engine performance due to backfires of hydrogen fuel and air.
The direct injection hydrogen engine developed by the research team solves the problem of backfiring by directly injecting high-pressure hydrogen fuel into combustion chambers. It can maximize thermal efficiency while improving output performances and reducing harmful emissions through a high compression ratio, fuel stratification and ultra-lean combustion.
In particular, the hydrogen engine can cut carbon dioxide emissions by 99 percent and fine dust emissions by 90 percent compared to gasoline engines. This satisfies European standards for pollution-free vehicles. It also emits less than 15 ppm of nitrogen oxides (NOx) without needing after-treatment equipment to purify automobile exhaust, and achieves high thermal efficiency of up to 40 percent.
Nitrogen oxide (NOx) is a chemical substance produced by the reaction of nitrogen and oxygen. It is created mainly in the atmosphere during combustion processes at car engines and power plants. It is considered one of the substances that have a harmful effect on the environment. High NOx emissions can cause health problems related to respiratory diseases.