Porsche tests combustion engine with hydrogen as fuel

We are already familiar with hydrogen as a feedstock for a fuel cell, but it can also function as a fuel in an internal combustion engine. Toyota has already figured that out with, among other things, a GR Yaris that burns the stuff, but it is also already racing with a GR86 with a hydrogen engine. Yamaha is now working on a hydrogen-powered V8 for Toyota. BMW already introduced a V12 in 2005 that burned hydrogen and still believes in hydrogen, only in a fuel cell. Porsche is now investigating the possibilities of using hydrogen as a fuel. Like Yamaha, it grabs a V8 to test it.

Porsche doesn’t quite go as far as Toyota and Yamaha, because it only tests the V8 virtually. It is a biturbo V8 with a displacement of 4.4 liters, in principle the eight-cylinder as you find in the Panamera and Cayenne. Porsche has made various virtual adjustments to make the block as efficient and powerful as possible with hydrogen as fuel. It has used other turbos for this, among other things. “On the one hand, for clean combustion of hydrogen, the turbochargers have to deliver approximately twice as much air mass as in petrol engines. On the other hand, however, the lower exhaust gas temperatures lead to a lack of energy for their propulsion on the exhaust side,” explains Vincenzo Bevilacqua, Senior Expert Engine Simulation at Porsche Engineering. Porsche gives the turbos with an electric motor a helping hand.

Schematic of the operation of turbos, the intercooler and electric motor for the turbos.

According to Porsche, the adjustments have the intended effect. The 4.4-litre V8 is now capable of producing 600 hp on hydrogen. Of course, the clever minds also wanted to test what should be possible in practice with such an engine. It just hasn’t come much closer to practice than a virtual round on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. According to Porsche, the engine was tested in a simulation in a car with a total weight of 2,650 kilos. Probably a Cayenne. Based on the lap times of the same car from practice, a simulation could be done with the hydrogen engine and the higher total weight. There rolled out a lap time of 8 minutes and 20 seconds. According to Porsche, this confirms the sporty potential of a combustion engine that runs on hydrogen.

After this study, which lasted six months, Porsche is convinced that an existing combustion engine can be well adapted to deliver sporty performance on hydrogen. It also believes that costs can remain relatively low. According to Porsche, the engine itself will cost almost the same as a petrol equivalent, only the turbo system will drive the costs up a bit. The Germans say that they have no concrete production plans for the hydrogen engine for the time being. According to Porsche, the emphasis was on exploring “the technical potential of the alternative drive technology and expanding the capabilities of existing engineering tools.” Well, it’s a start. Porsche seems intrigued to say the least.