Frequently Asked Questions

Hydrogen has no color. The color of the hydrogen refers to its production process.

• Grey hydrogen is produced using natural gas, releasing CO₂ into the air through the chimney.
• Blue hydrogen is produced in the same way as grey hydrogen (using natural gas), but here the CO₂ produced is stored underground instead of in the air.
• If the hydrogen is produced by green electricity through an electrolysis process, the hydrogen is referred to as ‘green’.

The BeHydro hydrogen engines have 3 different layers of safety to ensure redundant safety:

• The first layer is provided by using high integrity components that are conforming to all the relevant class and safety requirements, e.g. pressure relief valves, double shielded gas feeding collector, etc.
• The second layer is provided by leak detection software and control system. The H2 control strategy allows for safe and efficient operation of the system.
• The third layer is the design of the H2 system to ensure no hydrogen can be trapped in a place where it could cause issues. The system is designed to have as a worst-case scenario a safe controlled venting of hydrogen from the top of the machine. Upon release, hydrogen dissipates extremely fast since it’s 14 times lighter than air.

On top of that, our dual fuel hydrogen engines offer operational safety by allowing an automatic and seamless switch back to liquid fuel operation if needed, ensuring reliability of the driving system.

The BeHydro hydrogen engines use proven technology and are designed to ensure long term and efficient operation. In addition to their long service life, they are also very easy to maintain. This saves costs and time for owners and operators.

• Long lifetime: +200.000 running hours
• Easy maintenance, long time between overhauls
• No use of rare/conflict materials

We have developed 2 types of hydrogen combustion engines:

•  The first type is the dual-fuel version. This engine can run on diesel as well as on a mixture of hydrogen and diesel. In hydrogen mode, diesel is used to ignite the hydrogen. 
• The second type of engine can only run on hydrogen and has a spark igniter (or spark plug) to start the combustion of the hydrogen.

When the air is aspirated into the engine, hydrogen is injected under low pressure at the air inlet of the cylinders. A mixture of hydrogen and air is injected into the cylinder. In this way, hydrogen can never accumulate in the engine. By injecting (pilot) diesel, a flame is created that automatically burns all the hydrogen in the cylinder with it. Burning hydrogen generates heat and pressure which is the driving force for the engine to run.

The consumption of diesel and hydrogen depends on the load profile of the engine. At full load the engine will use 61 kg of hydrogen and 45 kg of diesel per hour. To relate these figures with automotive, a new H2 car has a 6kg H2 tank capacity, a H2 bus has 40kg H2 on board. The efficiency at full load is around 40%.