Researchers from the Krakow University of Technology (PK) have gone head-to-head with the world’s largest automotive corporations and adapted a piston internal combustion engine to run on hydrogen. The team of inventors from the PK Department of Motor Vehicles under the direction of Professor Marek Brzeżański presented their innovative solution to the public for the first time on 29 January 2024 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at PK.

The laboratory of the PK Department of Motor Vehicles hosted the commissioning and demonstration of the operation of a reciprocating internal combustion engine adapted to run on hydrogen. For research purposes, PK scientists subjected a 5-cylinder industrial Scania engine to hydrogen power adaptation. 

PK has been researching the application of hydrogen to internal combustion piston engines since the 1980s. This has resulted, among other things, in the development of a plant to use waste hydrogen for energy purposes and in the construction of industrial hydrogen-fuelled engines for use with generators. The use of hydrogen in motor vehicle engines is the next step in the work of the team from the Department of Motor Vehicles.