Chinese GAC Motor promises that carbon dioxide levels can be reduced by 90 percent in the first generation of the ammonia engine.
What are we aiming for in the future?
Some car brands, such as Volkswagen, believe that electricity in various forms is the only viable way forward.
While others such as Toyota and BMW stick to the traditional internal combustion engine with added synthetic petrol. But there is a third way. Chinese GAC Motor thinks so.
Namely ammonia in an internal combustion engine. And because ammonia does not contain carbon atoms, no carbon dioxide is formed if complete combustion is achieved.
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And the Chinese think they can achieve that. Anyway, GAC Motors presented the concept at a trade show in the Chinese city of Guangzhou last year. The engine is a two-liter, four-cylinder case with 163 horsepower, the Chinese say.
Even then, the GAC people believed that the first generation of the engine would be able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent.
This is what the Ammonia Energy Association writes on its website.
In other words, compared to an ordinary internal combustion engine that burns oil-based diesel/petrol. However, the disadvantages of using ammonia as fuel are several.
The energy density is even lower than conventional fuel. For example, ammonia only contains a third of the energy that can be obtained from diesel.
And diesel already has a modest degree of efficiency. And yet. For some other Chinese have just presented the world's most efficient diesel engine, which even the German TÜV must recognize. Read more about it here.
However, the low energy density in ammonia can be partially compensated for, as the fuel works well under high compression, as the octane number is as high as 120.
On the other hand, ammonia as a fuel is extremely toxic. It will require an entirely new infrastructure to deal with the danger posed by the fuel. At best, this is a very expensive rebuild of the existing infrastructure. Neither part sounds exactly appealing.
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