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Hydrogen lifeline for combustion engines

While there’s a focus on battery-electric and hybrid bikes to meet environmental goals Kawasaki is also working hard on hydrogen-fuelled combustion engine technology with an eye to future carbon-neutral, high-performance bikes that still use combustion engines.

The firm has revealed a direct fuel-injected version of the Ninja H2’s supercharged four-cylinder engine, which is part of a development project to create a hydrogen powered version.

Direct injection has yet to be adopted by a production motorcycle, thanks in part to the cost and difficulty in making an injection system that can work fast enough to cater to a high-revving motorcycle motor. However, for a hydrogen-fuelled engine it’s a vital step if performance is to be maintained. Forced induction – supercharging or turbocharging – is also hugely beneficial to a hydrogen-fuelled combustion engine, so Kawasaki already has a head start in that respect.

The DI version of the H2 engine is actually dual-injected. There’s still a conventional fuel rail feeding a port-injection system, but a second, high-pressure rail feeds injectors firing straight into the cylinders. While the low-pressure, port injection system runs at around 44psi, the direct injection needs a massive 1450psi (according to patents filed previously by Kawasaki), and as such it has its own dedicated mechanical fuel pump, operated by an additional lobe on the exhaust camshaft.

Once direct injection is perfected, it will become simpler to switch to hydrogen power, although there will still be hurdles in terms of the hydrogen tank itself and the refuelling system, not to mention the fact that there’s no network of hydrogen filling stations. However, Kawasaki as a whole already has a hydrogen-focussed strategy in some of its other businesses, including the shipbuilding arm which is working on a room-scale hydrogen-fuelled combustion engine for future cargo ships, and the aerospace division which is involved in a project to develop hydrogen-powered airliners.

Nothing to do with PRL just another example that the world is moving to hydrogen in the future.
Im 50/50 on PRL as the potential is huge, I just feel like they need to get a wriggle on. Still is best site in Australia, big name backing(I hope) & plan is 'green' hydrogen so they still have some unique qualities & now government support. But you would have to say the interest is dying out. Time will tell.