BIT, FAW team develops turbocharged, DI hydrogen engine; high power and efficiency, near-zero NOx
06 June 2022
A team from Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) and China First Auto Works Corporation (FAW) has developed a 2.0L direct-injection (DI) turbocharged hydrogen engine that delivers clean, efficient, and high-power performance. Peak power of 120 kW @ 4400 rpm and a maximum torque of 340 N·m @ 2000 rpm can be achieved with the matched turbocharger. A paper on the study appears in the journal Fuel.
Hydrogen, as clean and renewable energy, is an ideal fuel for internal combustion engines. The direct-injection (DI) hydrogen engine can offer large power with low cost and rely less on hydrogen purity.
—Bao et al.
The team showed that appropriate retarded injection can suppress abnormal combustion and broaden the dynamic boundaries.
Among the findings:
A maximum brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of 42.6% is obtained with the slightly lean excess air coefficient (λ) of 1.91 @ 2000 rpm and 40.4% BTE with the λ of 2.47 @ 3000 rpm.
High conversion efficiency of NOx emissions of more than 99.5% is reached at low speeds (below 2000 rpm) and drops to 90% at 4400 rpm with the use of an NH3-SCR aftertreatment system.
NOx emissions of approximately two-thirds of the whole working conditions can be reduced below 20 ppm.
The optimized DI hydrogen engine can achieve high power (Brake mean effective pressure = 17 bar), high efficiency (Brake thermal efficiency = 42.1%), and near-zero emissions (NOx < 20 ppm) simultaneously.
Resources
Ling-zhi Bao, Bai-gang Sun, Qing-he Luo, Jin-cheng Li, Ding-chao Qian, He-yang Ma, Ying-jun Guo (2022) “Development of a turbocharged direct-injection hydrogen engine to achieve clean, efficient, and high-power performance,” Fuel, Volume 324, Part B, doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2022.124713
I hope they are running it on green H2.
Otherwise they may as well run the engine (or a modified version of it) on methane.
Posted by: mahonj | 06 June 2022 at 10:58 AM
Im ready to buy now in canada before the hydrogen infrastructure. Maybe a home hydrogen electrolyzer can de the trick.
Posted by: Gorr | 06 June 2022 at 12:58 PM
Good point, mahonj.
A H2-ICE can use both green H2 as well as Natural Gas. Use green H2 for about 250-mi local driving per fill-up, and when filled up with NG, can go 3 times further, for a range of ~600 miles for long trips, because NG is a lot more energy dense per volume than H2. No need to use expensive battery nor expensive fuel cell and still capable of using green energy for daily driving
Posted by: Roger Pham | 06 June 2022 at 01:03 PM
@Roger, it is like a PHEV where the local driving can be done in H2 and the long range stuff on CH4. I hadn't looked at it like that (i.e. changing from trip to trip), I was thinking of vehicle to vehice, but if you could do it with two tanks, why not.
(You could even use diesel or gasoline in another version !)
Nice idea.
Posted by: mahonj | 06 June 2022 at 01:11 PM
@Gorr, I'd wait for the infrastructure.
I imagine a home electrolyzer would expensive and not very efficient.
I'd leave that bit to the big boys - (Unless you have a lot of solar at home ...)
Posted by: mahonj | 06 June 2022 at 01:13 PM
If it can tolerate some impurity than we can save money significantly on hydrogen production as the machine to produce it should cost less... IM thrill to try it soon.
Posted by: Gorr | 06 June 2022 at 02:57 PM
RNG is available from Clean Fuels at trucks stops
Posted by: SJC | 06 June 2022 at 04:04 PM
@mahonj,
No need for 2 tanks, the tank for for compressed H2 at 700 bar can hold very well NG at 350 bar that will boost range from 250 miles to 600 miles. The same H2 gas injector will do fine for NG, just reduce the NG injection volume since we will need much less NG volume.
Gasoline is a totally different and will need lower compression ratio, and a few other changes, so would not be best in the same vehicle. The idea is to move away from gasoline, and not to continue to burn gasoline.
@SJC,
Good idea. RNG would be great where green H2 is not yet available, to lower CO2 emission. The use of green H2 for local driving, and RNG for long-distance driving would be a cheaper and more complete zero-CO2 solution than the use of resource-intensive BEV that uses grid electricity made partly from fossil fuel.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 06 June 2022 at 04:20 PM
Good point, Gorr, in that H2-ICE can tolerate much higher impurity in the H2, thus will lower the price of H2 at the pump for H2-ICE. Any price reduction in H2 will be greatly needed to fast-tracking green-H2 in transportation.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 06 June 2022 at 04:22 PM
Hydrogen can be made from RNG at the station.
Posted by: SJC | 07 June 2022 at 01:10 PM
@mahonj
I take your point that H2 can be very Carbon intensive to produce (SMR), but there are ways to produce it using zero carbon energy sources.
We're in a Chicken and egg situation at the moment where the 'Hydrogen Economy' needs an infrastructure to start, and with H2ICE vehicles like this showing real promise, it can only help in getting the infrastructure in place.
Posted by: Norman | 08 June 2022 at 07:20 AM