Jonathan Welch speaks to Ricardo’s Andrew Ennever about the company’s trial conversion of an Enviro400 to hydrogen fuel cell power
Ricardo is a name that many might have heard of, but without really understanding what the company does, or the breadth and depth of its reach across multiple high-tech engineering sectors. The company recently turned its attention to the bus industry – and not for the first time in its 107-year history – in developing a hydrogen retrofit system for an existing diesel-powered double-deck bus. We spoke to Ricardo’s Andrew Ennever to find out more about the project and the company’s plans.
Background
Ricardo has a long history and was founded by Sir Harry Ricardo in 1915. Sir Harry gained a reputation for being one of the most innovative engineers of his time and had as his mission a vision to maximise efficiency and eliminate waste. One of his earliest projects involved tanks, early examples of which had engines that created large amounts of smoke. This had the unfortunate consequence of giving away their position and Harry was asked to look at the problem. He decided a new engine was needed and designed it himself. With its reduced smoke emissions, the new engine also proved to be much more powerful; a total of over 8,000 of his engines saw military service from 1917, making it the first British-designed engine to be mass produced.
It was not long before a bus became the focus of Sir Harry’s attention. In 1931, he developed the Ricardo Comet combustion system for high-speed diesel engines, initially for AEC to use in its London buses. Such was its impact across the industry that variations of this system were in use in the majority of diesel car engines as late as the mid-1980s.
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