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Concept
Hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicle
Summary
A hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicle (HICEV) is a type of hydrogen vehicle using an internal combustion engine. Hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles are different from hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (which use electrochemical use of hydrogen rather than combustion). Instead, the hydrogen internal combustion engine is simply a modified version of the traditional gasoline-powered internal combustion engine. The absence of carbon means that no is produced, which eliminates the main greenhouse gas emission of a conventional petroleum engine.
As pure hydrogen does not contain carbon, there are no carbon-based pollutants, such as carbon monoxide (CO) or hydrocarbons (HC), nor is there any carbon dioxide () in the exhaust. As hydrogen combustion occurs in an atmosphere containing nitrogen and oxygen, however, it can produce oxides of nitrogen known as . In this way, the combustion process is much like other high temperature combustion fuels, such as kerosene, gasoline, diesel or natural gas. As such hydrogen combustion engines are not considered zero emission.
A downside is that hydrogen is difficult to handle. Due to the very small size of the hydrogen molecule, hydrogen is able to leak through many apparently solid materials in a process called hydrogen embrittlement. Escaped hydrogen gas mixed with air is potentially explosive.
Francois Isaac de Rivaz designed in 1806 the De Rivaz engine, the first internal combustion engine, which ran on a hydrogen/oxygen mixture. Étienne Lenoir produced the Hippomobile in 1863. Paul Dieges patented in 1970 a modification to internal combustion engines which allowed a gasoline-powered engine to run on hydrogen.
Tokyo City University have been developing hydrogen internal combustion engines from 1970. They recently developed a hydrogen fueled Bus and Truck.
Mazda has developed Wankel engines that burn hydrogen. The advantage of using ICE (internal combustion engine) such as Wankel and piston engines is that the cost of retooling for production is much lower.
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