Hydrogen Engine

Hydrogen powered cars and other hydrogen powered machines sound like the stuff of science fiction, even though the concept of burning hydrogen for power is over a hundred years old. So if hydrogen can be burned as a fuel it seems logical that an engine could be designed to run on this fuel. So now the question of whether hydrogen powered cars really work is more of an issue of feasibility rather than than one of whether it is possible. So let’s investigate the feasibility of burning hydrogen in a traditional internal combustion engine.

Internal combustion engines work by mixing fuel and oxygen in a chamber and igniting the mixture to drive a piston that is connected to a drive shaft that converts the up and down motion of the piston into a rotary motion that is then transferred to the drive train (Transmission, Differential, Wheels). So logically if any fuel that is combustible should be able to be used to produce the combustion needed.

This is an overly simplistic view and there are many factors that need to be adjusted for the different type of fuels used. In the case of hydrogen the main factor is the by-product of the combustion process, which is water. At first glance you may not see this as a problem but a benefit. Actually it is both.

Having the only exhaust be water vapor sounds great for the environment, and it is, but current car parts are made from steel. Most people know that rust is caused by exposing steel (or other metals) to water and air a process known as oxidation. So burning straight hydrogen, while possible, requires some major modifications if we don’t want are vehicle’s engine and exhaust system to rot from the inside out. This would require, at a minimum,the use of stainless steel parts in much of engine and exhaust.

A more realistic application is to use a hybrid type system which burns HHO gas along with gasoline which improves the burning of the fuel more completely and reduces the amount of gas that is needed to achieve the same power as gasoline alone. HHO gas also known as Brown’s Gas is the product of running an electrical current through water. The result is the breakdown of H2O into it’s two component parts of hydrogen and oxygen. Are you scared yet?

While this sounds very technical the device to produce this gas is surprisingly simple and can be made from parts found in your local hardware store. Such devices are being built by a growing number of Do-it-yourselfers and tinkerers around the world. The most rudimentary of these devices consist of a mason jar, a plastic core wrapped with stainless steel wire and connected to the cars battery for power and the output gas routed to the cars air intake manifold or vacuum system.

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