Overview
Since the Industrial Revolution, the internal combustion engine (ICE) has been powering human dreams and mobility. Air-fuel mixture enters the engine, a piston compresses it, a spark ignites it, and the expansion of the combustion gases pushes the piston to turn the crankshaft. Over the years, efficiency has increased with advances, such as fuel injection and turbocharging, but the principle has remained the same. ICE is the workhorse of everything from cars and ships to industrial and agricultural machinery. The EU-funded H2Engine project has developed a way to turn a standard ICE into an environmentally friendly one. Its ICE technologies can be integrated with any new or existing ICE and enable it to run on hydrogen; the tipping point is that these new emission-free vehicles and machinery will be affordable for the first time.
The combustion engine is the most widespread energy conversion machine and the most important drive system for vehicles, construction machinery, agricultural machinery and even ships. It is not replaceable as a form of drive. Especially for transport vehicles that have to carry heavy weights. As a result of that fact, the combustion of fossil fuels in engines generates 23% of the global CO2.
With the EIC project, we want to make the combustion engine environmentally friendly and bring the KEYOU-inside- technology (TRL6) to the market. KEYOU-inside- are components that can be integrated into new or existing combustion engines and enables the engine to run on hydrogen. The product defines a leap in terms of current capabilities and qualities and addresses a gigantic market. Our starting market alone, the bus and truck industry, has a volume of €350 bn. In principle, our customers are all OEMs and end customers in the conversion business. We are open to manufacturers and therefore extremely scalable. In the future, even large generators, ship engines etc. can be made hydrogen capable with our system.
Hydrogen combustion engines offer many advantages: the same availability and service life as Euro 6 vehicles, higher customer value than alternative drive concepts (payload, number of passengers, range), low susceptibility to maintenance and the existence of an service infrastructure.
Although various manufacturers have recognised the potential of an H2engine, they have never been able to resolve the conflict between zero emissions, efficiency and economy. KEYOU can meet this demand: An emission-free vehicle that, in comparison to the Euro 6 vehicle, can be operated with high performance, customer benefit and at the same time with unchanged total costs.
The technology is the key factor of KEYOU and leads to a significant growth in sales and employees (Target: 162.9 Mio by 2024) and to a zero reduction of CO2 emissions in mobility. KEYOU - emission-free technology.