Abstract
Hydrogen is probably "the" fuel for the future or at least it is seen as one of the most important energy vectors of the next century. Hydrogen, as a renewable energy fuel, provides the potential for sustainable development particularly in the transportation sector. Hydrogen-driven vehicles reduce both local as well as global emissions.
There are several hydrogen demonstration projects in Europe and the European industry has realised hydrogen vehicle prototypes for passenger cars, van type vehicles as well as city buses.
Hydrogen Systems n.v. and the Laboratory of Transporttechnology (University of Gent) have a long experience in the research on hydrogen fuelled internal combustion engines. In 1994 the first
Belgium hydrogen fuelled city bus "Greenbus" was presented to the European Commission.
At the ESFA '98 conference in Bucharest the development of a GM V-8 engine for the use of hydrogen fuel was presented. The adaptations necessary for the hydrogen fuel supply were given. A basic fuel supply system with gas carburettor was designed and implemented that provides the engine with hydrogen, natural gas or hydrogen/natural gas mixtures in variable proportion. But the final goal is the installation of reliable multi-point sequential gas injectors. In this paper results are given from the preliminary experimental injection tests. An increase of power output against the carburetted version is noted. The injection tests prove a safe operation of the engine without back-fire problems.