Astron’s hydrogen engine achieves record 60% efficiency with 0 emissions

If the dawn of the electric vehicle (EV) age has you worried about losing the sounds and vibrations of an internal combustion engine (ICE), then Kansas-based Astron Aerospace has a solution for you.

Meet H2 Starfire, a hydrogen-powered combustion engine that produces water as a byproduct and emits no planet-warming emissions whatsoever.

Countries plan to phase out the sales of ICE vehicles to promote the use of non-polluting vehicles. Tail-pipe emissions are major contributors to the transportation industry’s emissions, and while the puzzle of long-haul transport is yet to be solved, governments are hopeful that they can make an impact by switching commuters to electric modes.

This would require many automobile enthusiasts to give up their fuel-guzzling and noise-producing vehicles, and rightly so. An ICE-powered car is only 20 percent efficient, meaning 80 percent of the energy from the fuel is lost as heat. The best car engines on the road today hit the 40 percent mark, but Astron’s H2 Starfire engine could replace them all, thanks to its 60 percent efficiency.

How does it work?

Hydrogen is touted as the next best thing to fossil fuels since it can be burned to produce large amounts of energy but only generates water as a byproduct.

Interesting Engineering has previously reported on how hydrogen can be used in fuel cells , but it needs a different set of conditions to be burnt inside a combustion engine.

Astron’s H2Starfire achieves these using two sets of counter-rotating rotors: one aluminum half does the intake and compression jobs, while the titanium half at the rear handles expansion and exhaust.

Inside the engine, temperatures reach 1,400 Fahrenheit (760 degrees Celsius), and here, hydrogen can burn cleanly to produce energy, noise, and mechanical vibrations that motorheads fear they will miss.

High-efficiency claims

The company claims it has achieved another major milestone by eliminating the need for water cooling. This has also helped it reduce the complexity of its design and weight, which gives it an efficiency boost.

H2Starfire’s design is quite linear and avoids the use of apex seals. The company claims that the engine is frictionless, and its tolerances are so tight that only timing gears and bearings need oiling. This has been achieved with a simplistic design of the engine, which consists of only 82 parts.

So far, we have seen a partial prototype of the engine, so a fair bit needs to be done before we see a prototype vehicle with this anytime soon.

There is a reason why limited engine designs have made it to market, even though two centuries have passed since the first automobile was rolled out.

Even if Astron perfects its hydrogen engine soon enough, the other piece of the puzzle needs to be solved as well. Currently, hydrogen production is largely achieved through the use of fossil fuels, so burning hydrogen or fossil fuels is quite the same as now.

Once the firm achieves mass-scale green hydrogen production and rolls it out, Astron’s H2Starfire could definitely be in high demand.