Challenges in Developing Hydrogen Direct Injection Technology for Internal Combustion Engines

Welch, Alan; Mumford, David; Munshi, S. R.; Holbery, James D.; Boyer, Brad; Younkins, Matthew; Jung, Howard

doi:10.4271/2008-01-2379

Cited by 69 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This development is described by Yamane et al [25], who also re-395 port successful durability testing of several hundred hours, including testing on an injector test stand as well as installed in an engine. Another important development has been the demonstration of a piezoelectric injector [62], which through its faster actuation compared to previous solenoid actuated injectors has enabled added optimization freedom (further discussed below).…”

Section: Injectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent progress in the use of hydrogen as a fuel for internal combustion engines

Verhelst

2014

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

375

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines (H 2 ICEs) have been the topic of research for many decades, and contemporary reviews have surveyed the relevant literature. Because of a number of relatively large R&D projects that have been ongoing recently, much progress has been made that is worth 10 reporting. Specifically, this paper reviews the advancements made in plotting the possibilities offered by direct injection of hydrogen, in-cylinder heat transfer, modeling and combustion strategies (on an engine as well as vehicle level). These efforts have resulted in impressive efficiency numbers, both at peak and part load operation, while keeping emissions far below regulatory 15 limits and reaching satisfactory specific power outputs. New demonstration vehicles have been put on the road showing the relatively low barriers (on a vehicle level) to introduce hydrogen engined transportation and these are briefly described. The paper discusses the merits of H 2 ICEs but also what makes them potentially unfit as a realistic alternative. Finally, the paper 20 concludes with the main areas of research that require further efforts.

show abstract

Section: Injectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent progress in the use of hydrogen as a fuel for internal combustion engines

Verhelst

2014

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

375

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For dedicated hydrogen and methanol engine, peak brake thermal effi-315 ciencies of respectively 45% [24] and 42% [35] have been reported, compared to 36 % and 42% for modern gasoline and diesel engines respectively. In part load operating conditions the ability to use high compression ratios and throttleless load control enables increases in efficiency of 10-20% relative to throttled gasoline operation.…”

Section: Comparison Against Conventional Gasolinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several papers have reported efficiencies of engines operated on hydrogen. Ford [22, 23,24] published figures obtained on a dedicated hydrogen engine, where (among other things) the compression ratio (CR) was optimized to take advantage of the 190 high auto-ignition temperature of hydrogen. Tang et al [22] mapped the brake specific fuel consumption, both for a constant equivalence ratio, throttled strategy as for a WOT strategy (regulating load with mixture richness).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Comparison of the renewable transportation fuels, hydrogen and methanol formed from hydrogen, with gasoline – Engine efficiency study

Vancoillie

Demuynck

Sileghem

et al. 2012

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of hydrogen derived methanol in spark-ignition engines forms a promising approach to decarbonizing transport and securing domestic energy supply. Methanol can be renewably produced from hydrogen in combination 10 with biomass or CO 2 from the atmosphere and flue gases. From well to tank studies it appears that hydrogen derived methanol compares favourably with liquid or compressed hydrogen both in terms of production cost and energy efficiency. Since existing well to wheel studies are based on outdated technology, this paper tries to provide efficiency figures for state-of-the-art 15 hydrogen and methanol engines using published data and measurements on our own flex-fuel engine.Both fuels offer a great potential for efficiency improvements compared to gasoline engines thanks to a variety of favourable properties. However, there is a clear distinction between engines specifically designed for hydro-20 gen or methanol operation and flex-fuel engines, which should also run on gasoline. For dedicated engines, the literature indicates that peak brake thermal efficiencies up to 45% and 42% are possible on hydrogen and methanol respectively. The ability to employ qualitative load control instead of throttling enables relative efficiency improvements compared to gasoline between 25 10-20% due to reduced pumping losses in part load. On our flex fuel engine, operation on hydrogen using qualitative load control enabled the highest efficiencies, especially at low loads, where improvements up to 40% relative to gasoline were possible. At elevated loads, rising NO x emissions necessitated a switch to throttled stoichiometric operation, resulting in efficiencies compa- (5-10% relative to gasoline), but can be retained over the entire load range. These improvements are mostly due to reduced pumping losses, increased burning velocities and a slight decrease in cooling losses. Future well-to-wheel studies should take this considerable potential for ef- 35ficiency improvements into consideration and should also distinguish between dedicated and flex-fuel engines.

show abstract

“…The amount of H 2 they could inject at higher compression ratios was limited due to the injection pressure of their system. High pressure H 2 gas injection is difficult due to the high diffusivity and low lubricity of H 2 gas [5]. Therefore, reliable high pressure injection of H 2 gas remains an obstacle for the realization of such an engine.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased efficiency in SI engine with air replaced by oxygen in argon mixture

Killingsworth

Rapp

Flowers

et al. 2011

Proceedings of the Combustion Institute

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Basic engine thermodynamics predicts that spark ignited engine efficiency is a function of both the compression ratio of the engine and the specific heat ratio of the working fluid. In practice the compression ratio of the engine is often limited due to knock. Both higher specific heat ratio and higher compression ratio lead to higher end gas temperatures and increase the likelihood of knock. In actual engine cycles, heat transfer losses increase at higher compression ratios and limit efficiency even when the knock limit is not reached. In this paper we investigate the role of both the compression ratio and the specific heat ratio on engine efficiency by conducting experiments comparing operation of a single-cylinder variable-compression-ratio engine with both hydrogen-air and hydrogen-oxygen-argon mixtures. For low load operation it is found that the hydrogen-oxygen-argon mixtures result in higher indicated thermal efficiencies.Peak efficiency for the hydrogen-oxygen-argon mixtures is found at compression ratio 5.5 whereas for the hydrogen-air mixture with an equivalence ratio of 0.24 the peak efficiency is found at compression ratio 13. We apply a three-zone model to help explain the effects of specific heat ratio and compression ratio on efficiency. Operation with hydrogen-oxygen-argon mixtures at low loads is more efficient because the lower compression ratio results in a substantially larger portion of the gas to reside in the adiabatic core rather than in the boundary layer and in the crevices, leading to less heat transfer and more complete combustion.

show abstract

Challenges in Developing Hydrogen Direct Injection Technology for Internal Combustion Engines

Cited by 69 publications

References 5 publications

Recent progress in the use of hydrogen as a fuel for internal combustion engines

Recent progress in the use of hydrogen as a fuel for internal combustion engines

Comparison of the renewable transportation fuels, hydrogen and methanol formed from hydrogen, with gasoline – Engine efficiency study

Increased efficiency in SI engine with air replaced by oxygen in argon mixture

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About