Posted on 04/30/2026 9:14:06 PM PDT by Red Badger
The concept uses hydrogen, oxygen, and argon to enable stable combustion.
Aristidis Dafis and Hermann Rottengruber, PhD, with a one-cylinder experimental engine. Jana Dünnhaupt / Uni Magdeburg
Researchers in Germany have recently unveiled a hydrogen-powered engine that could challenge diesel in some of the toughest applications by operating without emissions and achieving efficiency levels above 60 percent.
Developed by a research team at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, the so-called hydrogen cycle engine operates in a closed loop and reuses most of its working gases after each cycle.
The project was led by Hermann Rottengruber, PhD, a professor at the university’s Institute for Engineering of Products and Systems (IEPS). It was also backed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany.
“This approach could become particularly important in applications where engines must operate under high loads for long periods, be highly robust, and deliver significant power,” Rottengruber pointed out.
A zero emissions engine
The innovative concept utilizes a carefully balanced mix of hydrogen, oxygen and argon. While hydrogen serves as the energy source, oxygen enables the reaction, and argon, which is a chemically inert noble gas, acts as a stable carrier.
Because argon does not burn or react under operating conditions, it helps create more controlled thermodynamic conditions inside the engine. This, as a result, improves the system’s efficiency and stability.
Unlike a traditional combustion system, most of the gas mixture in this engine stays inside the system and is reused. It’s cooled, processed and fed back into the cycle after each power stroke.
The system removes only specific byproducts, while it separates and liquefies the hydrogen involved in the reaction. This unique design enables the engine to run without producing conventional exhaust emissions.
For the project, the team tested multiple variants of the so-called Argon Power Cycle engine on a dedicated test bench, along with their colleagues from WTZ Roßlau gGmbH, a research institute specializing in engine technology, energy conversion and future fuels. They also validated performance through detailed computer simulations.
Clean power solution
The results revealed that the engine could combine high output with exceptional efficiency (over 60 percent), as it is capable of delivering power levels comparable to those of diesel engines. This makes it especially attractive for heavy-duty applications where both performance and durability are critical.
These include sectors where battery-electric solutions often struggle as a result of weight, range limitations, and charging infrastructure requirements, such as long-haul trucks, agricultural machinery, construction equipment and stationary power generators.
But, according to Rottengruber, the closed-loop design could also offer economic advantages. “In our assessment, the closed system could be more cost-effective over realistic operating periods than an open hydrogen combustion engine,” he stated in a press release.
This, the expert believes, is partly because of the elimination of expensive exhaust treatment systems and the high efficiency of the process, which could offset the engine’s greater technical complexity over time.
Still, the current concept faces limits in power density, as only a certain amount of hydrogen can be injected during each cycle. The team also noted that the carbon dioxide could accumulate in the system, for instance, through the combustion of lubricants.
“Both of these factors could affect efficiency and engine performance and must be taken into account in further developments,” Rottengruber elaborated. The concept is already attracting interest from the industry. “Leading manufacturers of marine propulsion systems have already expressed strong interest, as pressure is growing, particularly in this sector, to make climate-neutral solutions available by 2050,” he concluded.
Hydrogen is extremely difficult to use, ship and maintain.
It’s small atomic size makes it difficult to use. An additional problem is its ability through what’s called hydrogen embrittlement make metallic storage containers unusable over time.
I suppose this particular Greenie wet dream is to have excess solar n wind power producing hydrogen via electrolysis. Excess such as it is very windy for few nights when electric demand is down. Just store that power as hydrogen.
Water water everywhere. That is what the questioner was getting out. But if you want to be correct, then are you talking about the total volume of the earth, The Oceans, or the Air, etc. Your flippant remark bears no analysis on your part. For instance, if you include the inner earth, including the core, then Iron (Fe) would be the most abundant.
What exactly was incorrect about my comment? You said “on earth”, which does not mean just the oceans. If you mean “the earth’s water”, say so. Oxygen is more abundant than hydrogen in the crust or in the planet as a whole, and I did not mention iron at all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine
Diesel engine are in the 45 to 55% range. If the combustion temperature is higher for hydrogen, the efficiency would be higher.
For comparison, what is the efficiency rating of a comparable gasoline engine? A diesel engine?
Brave AI:
Typical gasoline engines are inefficient, converting only about 20% to 35% of the fuel’s energy into motion, with the rest lost as heat and friction.
Diesel engines are highly efficient, converting roughly 40–50% of fuel energy into work, which is 20–30% more efficient than conventional gasoline engines.
OK, answered.
OK, answered.
Closed cycle diesels have been used for decades by AIP submarines most of the tech is still classified. Argon is the inert gas or you can recycle CO2 and nitrogen from compressed air while feeding it pure O2 from your AIP storage tanks.
This engine is the same concept using hydrogen instead of diesel or ethanol like the French used in some of their AIP boats. Hydrogen has the plus of its only combustion product is pure.distilled quality water easy to condense out from excess O2 and Argon.
Ar is a percentage of the whole atmosphere it’s cheap you get it automatically when you make liquid Air products it is a byproduct of the liquid oxygen stream it’s a gas at LO2 temps you take the top off and cool it slightly argon drops out and nitrogen gas is the top gas then with small amounts of neon and helium too.
This engine is an ideal AIP submarine plant , it’s more efficient ,lighter and megawatts worth in side having only pure drinking water as it’s exhaust.
Bruh it’s the 21st century my guy.
https://newatlas.com/energy/high-density-hydrogen-storage/?h22
There is a slew of ways to storage and transport Hydrogen.
The oil industry alone uses millions of tonnes per year there is a hydrogen pipeline network all along the Gulf Coast for it’s distribution to hydrocrackers and to pull the sulfur out of diesel down to 15ppm or less. How do you think they make low sulfur diesel they use hydrogen to make H2S and pull that out crack it to solid S and more H2 or they oxidize it to sulfur dioxide and water aka sulfuric acid a major industrial chemical. Most is made to sulfuric acid it’s worth way more than solid elemental S.
I know all this. Working chemists & chemical engineers tell me transporting elemental hydrogen is a huge problem. I’ll believe the people doing it.
I knew this already. Should have sent it to that other guy who was claiming that hydrogen was “one of the most abundant atoms on earth”.
And yet , we in the oil industry use multiple million tonnes of it, and transport it hundreds of miles every day all along the Gulf Coast.
Save it you are living in the past. I have a tank of H2 gas in one of my labs it just sits there it’s carbon fiber lined with aluminum and polymer that is impervious to H2.
H2 is not a boogieman it’s a well used industrial chemical.
Should it be used at the consumer level nah there are better means for storing energy.
It takes 52-56 kWh to make a kg of H2 which holds the equivalent to 1 US gallon of octane on a BTU for BTU level LHV not HHV know the difference.
Octane is 34kWh LHV per gallon so right there you see the losses in the electrolysis machine not including compression or absorption into a hydride or adsorption into a MOF based material again know the differences from absorption to adsorption.
Compression to 300bar adds 10% more energy costs, going cryogenic temperatures for LH2 is 16% or more energy costs.
It’s moot at the consumer level a Model 3 Tesla only needs 250 watt hours to go 1 mile this is 4 miles per kWh and that’s with the AC ripping at hey speeds my Model 3 has done 90 watt hours per mile in city grid lock traffic. There is no idling and regenerative braking grabs 80% of what would be wasted as heat in brake pads, I will never need to replace brake pads they don’t get used very often the motors bring the car to a halt.
So 56kWh takes a Model 3 224 miles or more.
Hydrogen is a crappy way to store energy for anything other than niche applications once you have battery tech that’s 97% round trip eff like sodium ion cells are lithium is in the 90-95% range NMC OR LFP
Any engine burning anything even H2 is subject to the first law of thermodynamics and Carnot demands his due as well.
Electric motors and batteries are second law machines they may no Carnot due.
This is why a Model 3 goes 224 miles on the same energy input a hydrogen ICE engine would struggle to go 50 miles and that’s in a hybrid like a Prius a pure ICE engine car of Toyota Camry size would get 35 mpg at best and since 1kg of H2 holds the same BTU as one gallon of pure octane the distance traveled would be equal a BTU is a BTU in a first law machine.
Hydrogen combustion is just dumb once you have LFP, Sodium Ion , and soon to be aluminum ion which is a 3+ valence electron ion triple Li, and Na. Magnesium ion is also coming it’s a 2+ valence electron metal Ca too. All paired to silicate cathodes look up see that pie chart we are never running out of silicates or sodium and iron silicates it’s not possible the earths hard shell is a giant silicate.
Once the boomers are dead and stop being able jam up the energy transition the whole planet is going to forever energy. Nukes, solar, wind, and frac’d deep dry rock and magma based geothermal. With massive sodium ion, and iron ion BES at the terawatt scale. China already has not giga factories they have city sized tera factories CATL has a single factory with more interior area than the city of San Francisco has square miles of area yeah that big.
It’s not coming it’s here and we are being left behind because of bitter clinger boomers the sooner y’all kick off the better the youngers will be in the energy race.
At least Texas has told the clingers shove it we are building out solar , wind and batteries as fast as we can while also massively building AI tech it’s the only way to compete with China and they are winning hands down right now. Texas will have 35,000 more megawatts worth of one the second demand BES by 2030 that’s just what is already funded and approved by ERCOT more is coming as the AI race really kicks off. I have engineering friends and alumni working at Aalo they are building sodium cooled reactors for AI centers they expect at full scale to be 90days from the signing of a PPA to first bus bar voltage with $30 per megawatt hour delivered. 24/7 and on-site BES using megapacks for peak demands on the server farms.
They chose sodium cooling specifically to be able to switch to the fast spectrum and burn plutonium in the long term. Anyone who is not doing fast spectrum will be left behind when nukes scale past 15% of the power market. There simply is not enough U235 to scale to the terawatt level that A planet with 8+ billion all demanding EU levels of energy use let alone tera scale AI. Fast fission, solar, and deep geothermal are the only sources that can do 5000 exajoules worth of consumption we do 600 today bringing the other 6 billion humans to near EU levels takes 5000 EWh, oil can’t , coal can’t, natural gas can’t all would be burnt out in under two decades at 5000 EJ annual consumption.
In terms of solar power falling to earth per year, this translates to about 1.5 million exajoules 1.5x10^24J
We only need 5000 of those 1.5 million per year.
There is 2,000,000+ exajoules of heat in the top 8km of the earth’s crust and it is replenished continuously from below humans couldn’t possibly extract enough fast enough to change the thermal heat flow balance. A single geothermal EGS well is 15MW you can stack 24 to a pad just like shale wells and directional drill them like a spider web for miles and miles around the energy in a 5mi wide by 5 mile deep cylinder of scorching hot rock is immense. Two drilling tech has opened this up, plasma drill bits and microwave masers, high pressure mud PCD bits also can get to 8km now more than one company is drilling ultrahard granites with PCDs it’s when not if any more. Frac’d deep geo is 24/7/365 power too it never runs out after 50 years you let it sit and heat back up again as you exploit another dozen cubic miles of hot rocks come back and it’s hot again a few decades later a blink in geological time and species time too. Forget individual lifetimes they are insignificant at best we are doing things at the species level now. Nukes, deep geo, pumped and compressed storage are all in the species timeline. Centuries scale.
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