Diesel and clean: Australian university develops technology to adapt thermal engines to the use of hydrogen
UNSW engineers in Sydney have successfully converted a diesel engine to a hydrogen-diesel hybrid engine, reducing CO2 emissions by more than 85%.
The team, led by Professor Shawn Kook of the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering , took about 18 months to develop the dual-fuel hydrogen-diesel direct injection system that allows existing diesel engines to run using 90% hydrogen as fuel. . The researchers say that any diesel engine used in trucks and equipment for transportation, agriculture and mining could be adapted to the new hybrid system in a couple of months.
In an article published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Prof. Kook's team demonstrated that using the patented hydrogen injection system reduces CO2 emissions to just 90 g / kWh, 85.9%. less than the amount produced by the diesel engine.
“This new technology significantly reduces the CO2 emissions of existing diesel engines, so it could play an important role in making our carbon footprint much smaller, especially in Australia with all of our mining, agriculture and other heavy industries. where diesel engines are widely used, ”says Prof. Kook.
We have shown that we can take existing diesel engines and convert them into cleaner engines that burn hydrogen ”. This would allow the abandonment, or almost, of fossil fuels in much faster times than those necessary for the development of new classes of fuel cell engines. "With the problem of carbon dioxide emissions and climate change, we need more immediate solutions to address the problem of the many diesel engines currently in use."
The solution from the UNSW team retains the original diesel injection into the engine, but adds a hydrogen injection directly into the cylinder. The research, conducted in collaboration with Dr Shaun Chan and Professor Evatt Hawkes, found that the direct injection of hydrogen, specifically timed, controls the condition of the mixture inside the engine cylinder, solving the harmful emissions of nitrogen oxides which have represented an important obstacle to the commercialization of hydrogen engines.
"If you just put the hydrogen in the engine and let it all mix, you will have a lot of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, which is a significant cause of air pollution and acid rain," says Prof. Kook. .
"But in our system we have shown that if the system is layered, ie in some areas there is more hydrogen and in others there is less hydrogen, we can reduce the NOx emissions below those of a purely diesel engine."
It is important to note that the new dual-fuel direct-injection hydrogen and diesel system does not require ultra-high purity hydrogen, which must be used in alternative hydrogen fuel cell systems and which is more expensive to produce. Furthermore, compared to existing diesel engines, an efficiency improvement of more than 26% has been shown in the diesel-hydrogen hybrid.
Improved efficiency is achieved through independent control of direct hydrogen injection timing and diesel injection timing, allowing full control of hydrogen-controlled combustion modes – premix or blending -.
The research team hopes to commercialize the new system in the next 12-24 months and is keen to consult with potential investors. According to the researchers, the most immediate potential use of the new technology is at industrial sites where permanent hydrogen supply lines already exist.
These include mining sites, where studies have shown that around 30% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the use of diesel engines, mostly in mining vehicles and power generators. Electric diesel generators also have the potential to use this type of technology quickly.
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The article Diesel is clean: Australian university develops a technology to adapt heat engines to the use of hydrogen comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/diesel-e-pulito-universita-australiana-sviluppa-una-tecnologia-per-adattare-i-motori-termici-alluso-dellidrogeno/ on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 08:00:28 +0000.