Many people think that hydrogen is the clean energy of the future. For this reason, and in the process of continuing to favor vehicles that can be more polluting, a solution has been found to transform a gasoline car with a combustion engine into a hydrogen one… without having to discard them.
Adapting gasoline engines to hydrogen is possible
After the growth in sales of hybrid and electric vehicles, it seems that the turn is coming for the other form of sustainable propulsion, that of vehicles with engines powered by fuel cells or hydrogen cells. But it is also true that there are those who do not want to leave theirs burning.
And it is that, given the regulations that seek to stop selling and put an end to new cars and vans with a combustion engine in the year 2035, a new system has appeared in the form of a solution that intends that we continue to have our current gasoline cars or diesel… without having to scrap their engines.
Or what is the same; adapt the thrusters in a simple way. Because if; There is still a lot to negotiate for the implementation of this ban to be real, but the trend is taking shape, with the market not being oblivious to it, so the electric car is inevitably gaining ground.
What is it about
The decision of the European Parliament is confronted with a complicated reality in many European markets, including the Spanish. 64% of passenger cars in circulation are more than a decade old, and the average age of the fleet is now over 13 years old. In addition, almost all cars are combustion, so the transition to a clean fleet seems complicated in just over a decade.
Hence, there are solutions such as that of the French company New Times to transform gasoline and diesel thermal engines into clean, zero-emission hydrogen engines. In fact, they point out, they have already carried out the first tests and now they are going to take the tests directly to the vehicles. They consider that it makes no sense to try to throw away the more than one billion combustion vehicles that circulate around the world.
We are talking about a company with a long history in the field of automotive software, and which has now turned its research into a system that can convert any type of these engines. The project is about the technology called THOM ( Thermal Hydrogen Oxygen Mobility ). “We must stop demonizing vehicles with internal combustion engines. There are currently more than a billion such vehicles on the planet. Imagine what would happen if we had to throw them away and make new ones, “they mention.
Drive cleanly without changing cars
At the same time, manufacturers such as Toyota, Hyundai (such as the Nexo), Honda, Yamaha, Subaru, Mazda, Kawasaki or Punch Powertrain, among others, are promoting the use of hydrogen as fuel over gasoline. This idea, which is not exactly new, consists of adapting both diesel and gasoline engines to burn hydrogen, which allows internal combustion propellants to be kept alive for all kinds of applications: private, heavy transport, maritime applications…
“The least polluting vehicles are the ones we don’t need to build; we are working on a system that will allow us to drive an environmentally friendly vehicle without having to replace it with new technology,” said its founder. As such, the first prototype vehicle will be ready in the summer , while the second will be finished later this year. In fact, the local authorities of Occitania, where the company is based, have subsidized the program with an amount of 140,000 euros.
«The least polluting car is the one we do not produce. We offer a solution to drive cleanly without changing cars . Our technology allows only part of the vehicle engine to be modified, without having to change it completely”, they conclude.
