China Yuchai International says that its YCK16H hydrogen-fueled development engine successfully ran in Yulin, Guangxi, at the end of June. The engine, with a displacement of 15.93 liters and a maximum output of 560bhp, is claimed to be the largest hydrogen-fueled engine, both in terms of displacement and horsepower, in China.
In December 2021, Yuchai successfully ran China’s first hydrogen-fueled engine, the YCK05H, intended for use in urban buses and other lighter-duty applications. After completing the development of that engine platform, Yuchai launched the development of the YCK16H, a heavy-duty, direct-injection hydrogen-fueled engine.
The YCK16H uses a high-pressure common-rail, in-cylinder direct-injection system coupled with dual-channel turbocharging technology, which it claims can achieve both homogeneous combustion and stratified combustion. Yuchai states that the platform has high adaptability to differing levels of fuel purity and can be run on fuels prepared from grey hydrogen, green hydrogen, methanol-produced hydrogen and other means. To solve the problem of the relatively low power-per-liter of hydrogen-fueled engines, Yuchai chose its YC16H platform, which has a particularly high power-to-weight ratio for its class when run on diesel fuel.
The engine uses Yuchai’s in-house developed engine control system and high-efficiency air management system, which can achieve both equivalent stoichiometric combustion and lean combustion and can adjust injection fuel pressure and air intake volume to suit different fuels.