Optimisation of a H2 powered internal combustion engine (HYICE).

Concerning mobile applications, the requirements on a propulsion system are significant. The today's standard is set by gasoline and diesel engines with high power density and excellent dynamic behaviour at reasonable costs. Renewable hydrogen used in the well known internal combustion engine offers even further improvements of these familiar properties. This approach is followed up by the Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (H2-ICE) project HyICE, funded by the European Community with 5 million euro. The project started in January 2004 and covers a timeframe of three years. Eleven partners, including four OEMs, are involved in the activities. Within two independent subprojects the most promising principles for mixture formation are investigated and optimized, and the relevant injectors are developed. These efforts are supplemented by a third subproject, developing additional technologies, A dedicated ignition system as necessary for both concepts of mixture formation, will offer an even higher potential for optimisation of quality controlled Hydrogen engines. For efficient development work on future engine generations including production engines, a commercially available CFD-tool, suitable also for H2-ICEs.will be established by using CFD models for mixture formation and combustion which will be specially adapted to the specific characteristics of Hydrogen. To accelerate the dissemination of H2-ICE knowledge for an early market introduction, a further subproject is focused on the information exchange with research institutes in the USA. Ford Power Train Research as well as two national laboratories are investigating in analogical topics. The goal of the project is to create the technology for building a highly efficient H2-ICE with better specific power than either gasoline or diesel engines at competitive costs. The paper will describe the current activities with details of the achievements so far including a discussion about the challenges ahead (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E212343.