Bosch Engineering and Ligier Automotive present Ligier JS2 RH2 with hydrogen engine at Le Mans

Just some months right into a joint innovation undertaking (earlier post), engineers from Bosch Engineering and Ligier Automotive have built a high-performance automobile with a hydrogen engine. The demonstrator is predicated on the Ligier JS2 R race automobile, which was modified for hydrogen operation.

The Ligier JS2 RH2 was formally introduced to the general public for the primary time as a part of the 100^th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Ligier JS2 RH2 has already been pushed on take a look at tracks in Germany and shall be additional developed and examined through the summer season.

Within the undertaking, Bosch Engineering oversaw the general automobile design and performed the important thing function in growing the idea for engine and tank system, and a complete multistage hydrogen security system.

Ligier Automotive was accountable for the worldwide automobile dynamic efficiency, the design of the monocoque, and the chassis adaptation of its present Ligier JS2 R. Ligier additionally optimized the mechanical parts to be used with hydrogen and led their general integration into the brand new automobile.

The automobile encompasses a V6 hydrogen engine and a carbon monocoque that integrates three 700-bar sort IV hydrogen cylinders from Hexagon Purus. These tanks match the necessities on the scale, efficiency, and security for the high-performance demonstration automobile.

The three.0-liter biturbo charged V6 engine already has an output of 420 kW and shall be optimized even additional within the coming weeks. It’s primarily based on a volume-production gasoline energy unit that the consultants at Bosch Engineering have transformed to be used with hydrogen. Particularly, this concerned adapting the ignition and your entire injection system.

Not solely does the engine idea guarantee very lean combustion, with particularly low nitrogen oxide emissions as much as partial load, it additionally delivers a really excessive particular output. One other problem whereas growing the engine was to attain secure combustion with out preignition at excessive masses and engine speeds of greater than 7,000 rpm.

The automobile’s multistage hydrogen security idea consists of the storage system with its high-pressure tanks in addition to the strain controllers and provide traces to the engine and injection system. For instance, integrating Hexagon Purus hydrogen tanks into the automobile’s carbon monocoque ensures optimized packaging and a excessive degree of security within the occasion of a crash.

Separation of tank, fuel management parts and engine compartments plus a passive air flow idea via pipes and chimneys be sure that gases are particularly eliminated to the surface in a failure scenario and keep away from coming into the passenger compartment or closing to scorching components from engine bay. As well as, leaks within the system are detected by an intensive sensor system.

Relying on the kind and severity of the defect, the system triggers a multistage lively security idea, starting from a warning to the driving force on the show to a shutdown of particular person line circuits as much as a complete system shutdown.

—Dr. Johannes-Jörg Rüger, president of Bosch Engineering GmbH

Adapting the Ligier JS2 R to combine the hydrogen system was key to the undertaking’s success.

We determined to exchange the present construction with a carbon monocoque and labored intently with our sister firm HP Composites and the R&D specialist Carbon Thoughts on this side of the undertaking. We’ve relied on all our expertise as a racing automobile constructor and created a custom-made carbon monocoque. With our present Ligier vary of automobiles and the experience we now have developed up to now years, we now have all of the instruments to design and construct dependable high-performance automobiles integrating new energies.

—Julien Jehanne, plant supervisor at Ligier Automotive

Bosch Engineering has been engaged on ideas for hydrogen engines since 2016 and supplies companies for high-performance functions, in addition to for different areas.