Increased MPG With Hydrogen!

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Okay, so we're back with a hydrogen-powered car. We have made a few modifications to this vehicle over the last few weeks. We are now running a petrol and hydrogen mix instead of just a pure hydrogen gas going to the engine.

[00:00:12]So, for those who are new to the channel, uh this car was running on pure hydrogen gas and it has been for a few years. Uh a lot of you had many questions about running hydrogen and petrol at the same time, so that's what I've gone and done. We're still using the same injection system and the same tank in the back, but now we're using a hydrogen and petrol mix. And the reason for that is so in the future we can create a new system which is an on-demand hydrogen system to help trickle feed some hydrogen gas to the injectors and we'll have a nice blend of hydrogen and petrol. So, let's go and take a look at the engine, let's get familiar with the car, and then we'll do some test runs on the motorway with a hydrogen and petrol mix.

[00:00:55]Okay, so let's take a look at the engine bay. So, for those who are familiar with this car, as you can see here, we've got the same injection system that we've used in the past. We've got a hydrogen supply going to the modified injectors which are now suited for hydrogen. Uh we've still got our petrol fuel line here, and we have our hydrogen injection pipes going into the manifold. So, from an engine point of view everything's the exact same. So, let's go around to the back and take a look at the tank.

[00:01:28]Okay. So, as you can see here, we have the hydrogen tank. Now, this is just a testing at the moment as eventually we will have an on-demand system so there'll be no more no need for a tank.

[00:01:38]Uh so, if you take a closer look here, we have our regulator. Now, this regulator for this setup now is extremely low pressure. This gauge doesn't actually read any um pressure going in through the line cuz it's going to be less than 1 psi. In the past, this was a a six-bar system, but now we're only running 1 PSI or less. We do have a flow gauge here just so we can see how much gas is being consumed. This is only temporary while we test the system cuz like I've said in the past, we will be running on-demand system, so I need to build an on-demand rig that is capable of uh supplying the correct amount of gas. So, at the moment, what I've noticed it's only running about 5 L per minute of hydrogen.

[00:02:24]Sometimes a little bit less than 5 L per minute. And we've seen some nice alterations on the ECU with the fuel trims. So, the ECU is actually pulling uh petrol out of the system, uh which is obviously going to help MPG. So, let's get on the road and test this out.

[00:02:45]Okay, so we're in the car now and we're going to be doing some real-world testing with hydrogen and petrol mix while cruising on the motorway. So, the first test we're going to be driving on just petrol and we're going to be doing to be monitoring the um fuel trim on this OBD scanner here. Now, this isn't 100% accurate, but as you can see, uh it's currently at idle and the ECU is pulling Well, this is saying it's pulling minus 20% fuel trim there.

[00:03:13]So, this will go positive to negative and as I accelerate the RPM, this will then start to change adjusting its air-fuel ratio by pulling more or less fuel here. And what we'll notice while driving um with the hydrogen, it should be seeing a lot less cuz we're injecting hydrogen into the engine. The ECU sees that there is another fuel or there's something not quite right, so it's pulling the amount of petrol going into the engine.

[00:03:46]So, let's just go for a drive on petrol.

[00:03:48]Let's see what the baselines are and then we'll drive back on hydrogen and do a nice comparison between the two. And hopefully what we'll see is less petrol being injected into the engine, which is obviously then going to save our fuel, hopefully get an increase in mpg, but more importantly with this system, the main aim is to reduce our emissions. So, ideally with our new project that we're working on here with this future on demand system, we want to try and cut our petrol emissions or carbon emissions and all that all that nasty stuff by about 40%. So, if we can get this car running with 40% less emissions with the hydrogen hybrid system, that would be a nice win.

[00:04:30]So, let's get on the road and give this a go.

[00:04:49]Hey, so we're joining the motorway now.

[00:04:53]Traffic doesn't look too bad, so hopefully we can sit in the slow lane and cruise at 50 mph.

[00:05:08]Okay, so let's see what's going on.

[00:05:10]Cruising at 50 mph. [clears throat] We're seeing -25% there.

[00:05:18]+7.

[00:05:20]Okay, so we're seeing it jump there.

[00:05:21]What we'll do after this video or off off camera, I'm going to rewatch this video and we'll get an average of what it's actually saying.

[00:05:30]So, we're sat at about 2 1/2 thousand rpm right now.

[00:05:35]Just above 50 mph.

[00:05:38]And we're seeing +20, 18.

[00:05:43]So, it is jumping around. Don't forget this is just petrol.

[00:05:47]And what we'll do on the way back, we're going to turn on the hydrogen gas and we'll see a comparison of the two.

[00:06:05]Okay, so we got some good baseline figures there. So, I'm just going to pull over now and we'll turn on the hydrogen gas from the boot.

[00:06:14]And now hopefully it gets some baseline figures.

[00:06:41]Okay, so the hydrogen gas is now on.

[00:06:45]You can see the fuel trims here are getting It's pulling a lot of fuel in from the engine.

[00:06:52]So, now we're running a mix of hydrogen and petrol. The consumption rate is roughly uh 5 to 6 L per minute.

[00:07:03]Uh about 1 PSI or less of pressure.

[00:07:07]So, now we're just going to cruise back on the motorway at 50 mph.

[00:07:11]Hopefully, we'll see a reduction in the fuel trims.

[00:07:16]Uh let's see what happens.

[00:07:29]Okay, so we're cruising at about 2 and 1/2 thousand rpm, 50 mph. And as you can already see compared to the petrol, we've got a much more uh pulling more fuel out of the engine here.

[00:07:41]Uh so, there you got -70 and it's fluctuating between 40 and 70. Whereas on petrol, it was actually, uh, fluctuating between -20 and, uh, and then 40. So, it only seems to be taking effect while cruising. So, if I'm driving, so I'm starting to accelerate a little bit here now, the hydrogen doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever at first analysis, that is.

[00:08:05]Uh, and I think that's because my throttle position is constantly changing with speeds I'm driving at.

[00:08:11]Whereas when I'm cruising, it seems to sit nice and steady. The ECU can adapt and pull fuel as and when because of the additional hydrogen in the air intake.

[00:08:20]So, so far, so good.

[00:08:45]Okay, then.

[00:08:47]So, that's our little test now complete.

[00:08:50]One important thing to note is that when this says 100 or -100, as you can see it is now, um, cuz we do have the hydrogen in mix on, so the ECU is pulling as much fuel in as it possibly can.

[00:09:02]100% doesn't actually mean 100% fueling, cuz obviously that means there's going to be no there will be no fuel injected.

[00:09:07]What that 100% is actually means is it's 100% of the, uh, the limits of the ECU.

[00:09:13]So, the ECU might only be able to pull 40%, uh, at best of its fueling. But, 40% on this app here is actually 100%, so, uh, I'll scale that out when I do my calculations later on. But, if you've been watching this and have been thinking that's very, very high, uh, for the fuel trim, that's because it's not 100% accurate. It's, uh, the scaling is is off. So, 100% on this app actually means um the max uh the maximum fuel trim the ECU can actually do.

[00:09:46]Okay, so I've compiled all the data from the videos that I've uh recorded of the fuel trims, and the results are quite varied. It's anywhere between a 10 and 25% fuel trim reduction, which basically means I'm saving anywhere between 10 and 25% of my fuel that would normally be injected if it was pure petrol. So, what I've proven then today uh in very simple ways is um the ECU is self-calibrating on the fly.

[00:10:17]It is reducing the amount of fuel being injected into the engine, and that's all thanks to the hydrogen gas that is uh present in the air intake.

[00:10:26]So, this means I can now do more research going forward into an on-demand hydrogen system, cuz let's remember I was using a bottled hydrogen in the boot, and obviously that's not practical and it's expensive. So, I've not saved any money if I was to do that. So, uh I'm going to create an on-demand hydrogen system, which will trickle-feed the engine with a small amount of hydrogen gas.

[00:10:51]Today, I use 5 L per minute uh of hydrogen at idle.

[00:10:56]But, um I want to create a on-demand system, which is what I've been working on here.

[00:11:01]This is a system that is going to use the vehicle's waste energy, the waste heat from the exhaust, and convert that into hydrogen gas.

[00:11:10]Instead of using electricity from the alternator like many other people do, which is open to debate whether that works or not, instead this is going to essentially increase the thermal efficiency of the engine by converting waste heat into hydrogen, trickle-feed that hydrogen to the engine, hopefully reduce the carbon emissions by producing a faster, cleaner burn, reduce all the other nasty emissions in there, uh whilst potentially increasing miles to the gallon. So, that's the project we're going down. The system I've designed here might potentially make up to 25 L per minute of hydrogen, of which we've seen today is is way too much for what I need. I can I can get away with 5 L per minute of hydrogen. And if that is the case, I can recreate this system into something this size, which will be a lot smaller, a lot more practical to fit on other vehicles.

[00:12:04]So, it's been a very simple test today.

[00:12:07]I'm sure a lot of you will have more questions or pointers and other things I nearly need to reduce some more tests with. For now, I'm going to stick to the bottle hydrogen and do some more tests that way. And whilst I collect that data, I'll obviously be passing it on to you all. And in the background, I'll be working on this on-demand hydrogen system, which doesn't need electricity, doesn't need any harsh chemicals, and um it will absorb the vehicle's wasted energy and convert that into hydrogen.

[00:12:34]So, that's what I'm going to be working on in the background whilst I work on the hydrogen car. Um so, stick around, and I'll see you all next time. Cheers.

[00:12:43]Cheerio.