A prototype Ninja H2 bike saw its supercharged internal-combustion engine fed, well, H2 during demo laps July 20
To you and I, MotoGP is the highest calling in motorcycle racing. Or, if for some strange reason, you like production bikes more than racing prototypes, maybe you prefer the Superbike World Championship. In any case, on the world stage, the two dominate the image of motorcycle racing.
But, if you’re Japanese — or, more specifically, a Japanese motorcycle manufacturer — both of those high-vis racing series pale in comparison to the importance of the eight-hour endurance race held every year at Japan’s famed Suzuka Circuit. Whether it’s just because it’s home turf or, perhaps more adroitly, racing before adoring crowds on home turf, Suzuka enjoys an outsized import amongst Japanese motorcycle manufacturers.
That’s why it’s little surprise Kawasaki decided on July 20 to use Suzuka to introduce its most significant — and innovative — new bike since Team Green took the wrappers off its stupidly powerful supercharged Ninja H2. The reason this new bike is so important to Kawasaki? It’s hydrogen-powered.
Actually, it’s more than that. Not only were the bike’s demonstration laps around the Suzuka Circuit hydrogen-powered, this novel prototype was feeding the lighter-than-air gas to a traditional internal-combustion engine. In fact, not just any old piston-powered motorcycle, but the rootin’, tootin’ supercharged H2 I mentioned earlier. And, yes, if you know your periodic table, that really does mean Kawasaki is feeding H2 to its Ninja H2.
The first question you probably have is whether it’s actually possible to burn hydrogen in a piston engine. And the answer is: it’s actually no problem, little different, in fact, than fuelling an ICE with gasoline or, say, propane. Other than modifying the intake system for direct injection and changing cam timing, and tweaking the compression ratio and ignition timing specs to take into account hydrogen’s different flame-propagation characteristics, Kawasaki’s blown 998-cc four is surprisingly little changed.
Is a hydrogen-fuelled ICE really zero-emissions? Almost. As in, damned near. Or, if you prefer a more scientific measure, within a whisker. In point of fact, the burning of hydrogen itself in a piston engine results in no pollutants. No hydrocarbons. No nitrogen oxide. And, because it’s the emission du jour, especially no carbon dioxide. The only emissions directly resulting from the combustion of hydrogen is plain ol’ H20. In fact, Motor Mouth has actually sipped water collected directly from the tailpipe of a hydrogen-burning engine.
That said, any oil that slips past the rings does get burnt, and will create emissions. On a new or well-maintained, modern ICE, the difference in emissions between a hydrogen-fuelled ICE and an FCEV — that’s a fuel-cell electric vehicle — or a BEV is pretty minimal.
So, there must be a sacrifice in power, right? Not so much. I obviously haven’t ridden Kawasaki’s H2-burning H2 SE, but I have driven a hydrogen-fuelled Toyota Corolla, and it boasted almost exactly the same peak horsepower as the standard gasoline version, which would seem to indicate that a ZEV Ninja H2 would have around 190 horses or so.
So why haven’t we seen more hydrogen-fuelled motorcycles on the road? In a word, refuelling. For one thing, hydrogen refuelling stations are a rarity. There are fewer than 100 such facilities in North America, most of them concentrated in environmentally concerned communities in California and British Columbia.
The other issue is that burning hydrogen in an ICE is less efficient than using it to power a fuel cell. Those two huge saddlebag-like containers on each side of the prototype’s hindquarters are, as I said, high-pressure hydrogen tanks, and, frankly, they make the bike look like a combination of Honda’s ungainly NM4 and the original Batmobile. Even so generously endowed, chances are its range is substantially less than the standard gasoline-fuelled version with just 19 litres in its compact gas tank.
Researchers are looking to improve efficiency as well as use more energy-dense liquid — as opposed to gaseous — hydrogen, but that will, of course, require time and money. The question everyone in the motorcycle industry is asking is whether hydrogen technology can advance fast enough to be a legitimate zero-emission alternative to battery power.
Kawasaki is obviously asking louder than most, its prototype — the “first hydrogen engine motorcycle by a mass-production motorcycle manufacturer” — is fast and furious, if still not ready for prime time. That said, the world’s most prominent motorcycle manufacturers have split into two distinct camps: the Europeans who believe synthetic gas will power the ZEV motorcycles of the future; and the Japanese who think the solution is a hydrogen-powered piston. Kawasaki and its supercharged H2 are obviously leading the latter group. Hopefully, Driving will get to test a hydrogen-fuelled motorcycle sometime soon.
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