Rolf, This is kinda old news. They have been testing for some time
with Hydrogen.
the RX-8 style engine is perfect since they
can set the ports for no overlap event. There is squawk that the
side
ported "8" engine started life in their H2 testing. There
are papers which are a couple of years old. Use H2 powered
cars in google. You will probably get hits for the Mazda paper.
Bill
Jepson
Thanks Bill, and I thought I hit on something new. I see now that it
has been
around for a while. Here is the link:
http://www.evworld.com/databases/shownews.cfm?pageid=news150803-04
Also thanks to Vance for clearing up efficiency. I was wondering why
H2 as a
fuel could suddenly change engine efficiency over the RPE. Storing H2,
when
you need perhaps a 400 kg tank is something else as well as the cost
of making
H2 since it is not a 'fuel' found in nature. It's only an energy
carrier that must
first be made. Looks like the H2-fueled ICE may not be very favourable
either.
Thanks for straightening me out.
Rolf Pfeiffer.
An Hydrogen fuel cell is how I indirectly got started in a business 25
years ago.
I had developed some computerized performance test equipment. Road &
Track wrote
and article about it. First thing I knew I was involved in developing
test
equipment for Los Alamos Scientific Labs because they were researching
a fuel cell powered golf cart. The point is.... that was 25 years ago!!!
:)
It is still not here and is unlikely to ever arrive.
Microprocessor-Based System for Roll-Down and Acceleration Tests
by D.K. Lynn, C.R. Derouin, and Paul Lamar
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
Published in IEEE Proceedings 29th Vehicular Technology Conference
(The technical details of the road test system.)
Arlington, Illinois, March 28-30, 1979
Paul Lamar
What Mazda discovered was they could direct inject low pressure hydrogen
gas
in the rotary and thereby improve the volumetric efficiency of the engine
by 20 to 30% over a premixed hydrogen gas powered IC engine. Makes sense
as the hydrogen gas being 28% of the total mixture displaces some of the
air getting through the intake ports. Direct hydrogen gas injection does
not work well in a piston engine as the red hot exhaust valve causes
back firing and pre ignition. Probably what Keith was alluding to.
The output of the premixed engine is only 63% of the gas engine.
The direct hydrogen gas injected rotary is 90% of the specific power of
a gasoline rotary. Specific power in terms of size not thermal.
On the other hand premix works better at low power low RPM.
This is from paper C389/233 presented to the Society of Automotive
Engineers of Japan. Or it could also be SAE 925011.
Paul Lamar
If you want to play hydrogen fuel cell, there is a toy car setup on the
market for about $150. It makes H2 and O2 from water with a little
solar panel powered electrolosis cell, and this will drive a little
electric car for a little distance - makes for great feeling of
self rightous eco pride - but little else - Vance
Vance what do you know about detonation engines? Apparently there
are two kinds of burning and detonation appears to be more efficient.
http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_030804.html
http://www.aardvark.co.nz/pjet/pde.shtml
"Detonation versus Deflagration
Deflagration is what happens when you burn a mixture of air and
fuel at reasonably low pressure.
The "woof" you get when igniting a dish of flammable liquid such
as gasoline is a deflagration.
Deflagration is, believe it or not, a relatively gentle process which
is simply the rapid burning the fuel.
When we cause an air/fuel mixture to deflagrate in a semi-enclosed space
(such as a pulsejet or auto-engine) then pressure is generated and that
pressure can be harnessed to perform some work -- eg: create thrust
or turn a crankshaft.
One of the primary attributes of deflagration is that the flame travels at a
speed significantly lower than the speed of sound.
Detonation however is a far more powerful reaction of the air/fuel mixture
and results in such a rapid reaction that the pressure-wave created travels
at super-sonic speeds.
In effect, detonation is a violent explosion and as such it produces vastly
higher pressures than the simple burning process of deflagration.
Obviously, when we're looking to produce thrust, the more pressure we
can generate within an engine the better -- that's why researchers
are trying to build pulsejets that detonate their fuel charge rather
than just burn it in a deflagrating reaction."
End of quote.
Do you think we could use the principle in a rotary?
Paul Lamar
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