Accelerating sustainable innovation: How the FIA is driving the future of hydrogen power through motor sport

From the introduction of disc brakes within the Fifties to the creation of the world’s most effective hybrid energy models with the 2014 era of F1 laws, motor sport has at all times been a hothouse for development, a spot the place the pursuit of aggressive benefit relentlessly drives innovation.

The desire to win is a robust lever, however when it’s joined by a good stronger crucial – a societal demand for change – and boosted by the arrival of latest applied sciences ripe for exploration, that’s when motor sport’s means to push the boundaries of improvement actually kicks into gear. 

In June, that was demonstrated in Macau, with the ratification by the World Motor Sport Council of the primary ever set of technical and security laws for liquid hydrogen-powered automobiles. The foundations not solely shield drivers and groups by establishing a transparent set of requirements that permit for protected, high-performance use of liquid hydrogen (LH₂), in addition they function a platform to speed up innovation across the gas supply. And in a world the place the demand for sustainable options is more and more vocal, that need to innovate is especially robust, as FIA Head of R&D Nicolas Aubourg explains. 

“The FIA is at all times looking for to grow to be extra sustainable, to decarbonise motor sport, and hydrogen is presumably the last word expression of that since you put H₂ and oxygen from the air in your energy unit, and the one byproduct on the exhaust is water offered that the combustion course of is correctly managed and accomplished,” he says. 

“We even have a number of producers which are extremely on this expertise. At present, nobody is kind of positive if the long run can be hybrid, electrical, sustainable gas, or hydrogen so analysis into hydrogen could be very a lot on the radar of corporations comparable to Toyota, who have already got a hydrogen street automotive, the Mirai, and BMW who’re about to launch one. Hyundai has hydrogen fashions, Alpine has proven some demonstrators, and even Ferrari is on this expertise, as they see potential for hydrogen for use with inner combustion and never with a gas cell. 

“Lastly, because the FIA, we’ve got a really attention-grabbing set of instruments — with some championships additionally very fascinated with hydrogen as a future choice. The ACO (Car Membership de l’Ouest) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, wish to be pioneers with this expertise and so they assume that there’s a technique to make a step ahead and to vary motor sport.”

Skilled Coalition 

Initiated in 2021, the mission first targeted on compressed gaseous hydrogen, the shape mostly utilized in street automobiles. Nonetheless, as improvement deepened it turned clear that gaseous hydrogen introduced issues. 

“If you wish to design, let’s say, a hypercar, which was our first goal due to the ACO’s robust curiosity, it’s important to have huge, fairly heavy tanks and that makes the design of a race automotive fairly difficult,” says Aubourg. “Additionally, the time for refuelling is lengthy—it’s very tough to do it beneath two minutes and even three minutes as a result of you have got a number of modifications of temperatures, supplies. It is fairly difficult to take care of.”

With liquid hydrogen that includes increased power density and lighter storage necessities, perfect qualities for a racing surroundings, the choice was taken within the winter of 2023 to make the swap. There was, nevertheless, one extra challenge – this was largely uncharted territory with few earlier purposes. Confronted with a clean canvas and a largely unfamiliar new expertise, the FIA took the novel step of looking for experience from each space of hydrogen energy, a transfer that introduced onboard some shock contributors and which additionally proved transformative. 

“What we found with H₂ is that it’s a fascinating surroundings, one actually made for improvement and one with some very attention-grabbing stakeholders,” says Aubourg. “It was pure for us to contain Toyota and BMW as they have already got hydrogen-powered street vehicles, however then you definitely begin to take a look at who’s working with liquid H₂, and there’s one above all others – rocket science and the house business. And in Europe meaning Arianespace and the Ariane group. They’ve an infinite quantity of experience, so we looped them in, and they’re nonetheless very a lot concerned. 

“Past that we’re speaking about industrial corporations comparable to Air Merchandise to produce hydrogen and FORVIA for tanks… And fairly quickly, you start to construct a really attention-grabbing ecosystem of individuals.”

Aubourg additionally discovered there was a willingness to embrace motor sport’s potential to ship fast advances. 

“Individuals working in rocket science, on street vehicles, on vans, within the military, on planes – for them motor sport is a liberating surroundings. On this part ​we actually don’t care about reliability, about consolation. It’s solely about efficiency and solely about prototypes. With planes you want 10, 20 years to carry issues to market. In motor sport, it’s a five-year plan. For them, motor sport is a type of refuge, a closed surroundings, and it’s pure improvement.”

Constructing ‘bricks’

With a route of journey established and skilled assist in place, Aubourg says the following step for the FIA Technical Division was to assemble the ‘bricks’, the important thing technical specification and security necessities wanted to assemble the brand new framework. 

Among the many bricks are protected storage and temperature management, weight minimisation, refuelling procedures. And it’s tank design and warmth discount which have occupied a lot of the method. 

“The working level of liquid H₂ in motor sport could be very particular,” says Aubourg. “It’s extraordinarily, insanely chilly and the problem is that while you wish to hold it liquid, it’s important to retailer it in one thing that’s remoted from warmth—any warmth. And if there’s one factor a race automotive generates it’s warmth. As quickly as you set it in ambient situations it begins to get hotter, and also you get what’s known as boil-off.”

Boil-off should be fastidiously managed, and any ensuing over-pressure should be correctly managed to keep away from leaks and potential flash or jet fires. Making certain that LH₂ is saved sufficiently chilly and that pressure-control programs function successfully is of paramount significance

“The excellent news is that the answer is comparatively easy,” says Aubourg. “As quickly as you set what we name a vacuum jacket across the tank it may be very, very environment friendly. We’re additionally aided by the truth that in motor sport we don’t have to retailer the liquid within the tank for a protracted interval, as you do in a street automotive, so we’re discovering some new options to have the fitting degree of isolation, the fitting dormancy time [where stored fuel evaporates over time, building pressure] and to make the packaging and the design a lot better for a race automotive.”

The FIA Technical Division has additionally collaborated with its sister Security Division to take the design into the true world by a collection of bodily checks. 

“We started testing in October and they’re ongoing,” explains Aubourg. “These encompass constructing a storage system with 20 kilograms of liquid H₂ on board, the utmost restrict we’ve got specified within the laws, and the tanks overpressure system is examined, or we verify what occurs when pipes are reduce. The subsequent step is to destroy the storage system and to verify what occurs when you have got a full liquid H₂ spill going onto the bottom.”

Weighing in

As with each motor sport class, weight discount is a main aim with hydrogen competitors and Aubourg is for certain that the analysis being undertaken to evolve the laws will yield large real-world enhancements – significantly within the areas of tank and gas pump design. 

“As an alternative of the 100 or 120 litres required for a race automotive utilizing fossil gas, with LH₂ you would want round 300 litres. We are able to discover some options when it comes to design, and we might additionally envisage extra hybrid options to minimize the LH₂ load on board. Plus, the load of the storage system is reducing day-after-day. The extra we have interaction with producers, the decrease the load goes. Some suppliers have began to create composite LH₂ tanks. So, every thing is reducing.

“One other challenge is the load of current LH₂ pumps. If you wish to discover a pump simply to boost the LH₂ to 70 bars to place it in an ICE, the prevailing pumps in the marketplace are, like, 30 kilograms. Examine that to a 500-gram fossil gas pump. There’s a lot to do there, however once more prototypes are being designed by the producers.”

Lastly, refuelling is one other “technological brick” the FIA engaged on as analysis continues and the laws evolve. 

“There’s a protocol which is a bit advanced, however we’re working with TotalEnergies who’re in control of delivering the LH₂ for future endurance racing,” says Aubourg earlier than explaining that current refuelling strategies will not be suited to racing.

“In Germany, some LH₂ refuelling stations for heavy-duty vans exist already and may refuel a automobile with round 1,000 km of autonomy in roughly ten minutes Nonetheless, for motor sport we have to go properly past this efficiency: as a substitute of ten minutes, we have to obtain 40 seconds, which means a refuelling price of 1 kilogram per second. It’s difficult, however in response to first simulations it appears attainable.”

This, for Aubourg, is the reward of making the primary set of liquid hydrogen laws – an enormous sandbox by which the potential to take fast innovation to the race observe and into wider society is a really actual prospect.

“it has been a very long time since I’ve seen that motor sport could be such a laboratory,” he insists. “And truthfully, work like that is an increasing number of vital,” he insists. “Individuals, particularly younger individuals, are extraordinarily involved by sustainability issues in motor sport, and past. We have now to anticipate this. If we wish to race tomorrow, we’ve got to do it. It’s our obligation – however a contented one.”