BMW announces new hydrogen tech that beats diesels for efficiency

By Alex Kaufmann

Alex Kaufmann

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8 4,643 views Mar 12, 2009

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BMW already claims its hydrogen combustion engines actually clean the air, but now they're laying claim to one of the most efficient combustion technologies on earth. How did they get there? By adding a high-pressure direct injection system and cribbing a few design aspects from diesel engines, including combustion chamber geometry. Cooperation on the project, named "H2BVPlus" comes from Austria's transport ministry, the Graz University of Technology's combustion engine institute and private firms HyCentA Research and HOERBIGER ValveTec.

Together, they've managed to create a direct-injection fuel system that shoots hydrogen into the unique combustion chamber at about 4,500psi (300bar). The benefits aren't just to thermal efficiency, but volumetric efficiency as well - BMW is claiming specific outputs of up to 134hp (100kW) per liter of displacement. The end result is an engine that's 42% thermally efficient, equal to or better than the best turbodiesels.

BMW says it can push efficiency even higher with addition of its exhaust heat capture system, itself recently announced as the subject of a new generation of EfficientDynamics work.

Despite the difficulties in sourcing, transporting and distributing hydrogen for fuel use, BMW thinks that a shortage in fossil fuels makes hydrogen the most logical alternative for future combustion engine use.

Expect to see the new technology rolled out into another demonstration vehicle, perhaps even a new version of the Hydrogen 7.