i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he

The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual

fuel engine

Taku Tsujimura*, Yasumasa Suzuki

Renewable Energy Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 2-2-9,
Machiikedai, Koriyama, Fukushima 963-0298, Japan

article info abstract

Article history: A hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine has great advantages on exhaust emissions
Received 22 October 2016 including carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in comparison with a conventional engine fueling
Received in revised form fossil fuel. In addition, if it is compared with a hydrogen fuel cell, the hydrogen engine has
23 January 2017 some advantages on price, power density, and required purity of hydrogen. Therefore, they
Accepted 24 January 2017 expect that hydrogen will be utilized for several applications, especially for a combined
Available online xxx heat and power (CHP) system which currently uses diesel or natural gas as a fuel.
A final goal of this study is to develop combustion technologies of hydrogen in an in-
Keywords: ternal combustion engine with high efficiency and clean emission. This study especially
Hydrogen focuses on a diesel dual fuel (DDF) combustion technology. The DDF combustion tech-
Internal combustion engine nology uses two different fuels. One of them is diesel fuel, and the other one is hydrogen in
Diesel dual fuel engine this study. Because the DDF engine is not customized for hydrogen which has significant
flammability, it is concerned that serious problems occur in the hydrogen DDF engine such
as abnormal combustion, worse emission and thermal efficiency.
In this study, a single cylinder diesel engine is used with gas injectors at an intake port
to evaluate performance swung the hydrogen DDF engine with changing conditions of
amount of hydrogen injected, engine speed, and engine loads. The engine experiments
show that the hydrogen DDF operation could achieve higher thermal efficiency than a
conventional diesel operation at relatively high engine load conditions. However, it is also
shown that pre-ignition with relatively high input energy fraction of hydrogen occurred
before diesel fuel injection and its ignition. Therefore, such abnormal combustion limited
amount of hydrogen injected. Fire-deck temperature was measured to investigate causal
relationship between fire-deck temperature and occurrence of pre-ignition with changing
operative conditions of the hydrogen DDF engine.
© 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

power generators using hydrogen as a fuel are significantly

Introduction expected. Conventional large-scale thermal power generators
are using a large amount of conventional fossil fuel, and if
Hydrogen fuel cell power generators have become popular for some percentage of fossil fuel is replaced with hydrogen, a
applications of houses and vehicles. Large-scale thermal great amount of CO2 emission can be reduced. Utilization of

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: tsujimura-taku@aist.go.jp (T. Tsujimura).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
0360-3199/© 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
2 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1
hydrogen with thermal power generators such as an internal
combustion engine (ICE) has some advantages over hydrogen
fuel cells (H2 FC) because of the following reasons. One of
them is lower cost associated with availability of existing
engine components and materials such as rare-earth metals.
The other one is that ICE doesn't require quite strict purity of
hydrogen differently from what H2 FC requires. This means
that ICE has superior capability to be able to use hydrogen
derived from various procedures such as water electrolysis,
steam reforming, and dehydrogenation of organic chemical
hydrides [1]. When ICE is used for as a combined heat and
power (CHP) system, combined efficiency is expected to be
over 80%, and CHP with ICE, meeting various size and power
demands, have already been widely prevalent. In present-day
society, electric power generation sector uses quite a bit
amount of fossil fuel and exhausts CO2 emission. Therefore,
as described above, if hydrogen is applied as a part of multi-
fuel to a large number of ICEs of CHPs that have already
been installed, a great reduction of CO2 emission and other
chemical constituents derived from carbon atom in fossil
fuels can be possible. Then, multi-fuel combustion technolo-
gies in ICE or thermal power system are quite important for
efficient and clean use of hydrogen.
To realize such a great reduction of CO2, it is also important
that source of hydrogen is renewable, sustainable, and carbon
free. This study assumes that hydrogen is produced with
renewable electricity which is derived from solar power and
wind power. It recently becomes a real possibility that
hydrogen is a promising large-scale energy storage to stabilize
power grids which is disturbed by intermittent electricity form
solar power and wind power. Fig. 1 shows a conceptual dia-
gram of energy flow from renewable energy to utilization of
hydrogen in ICE. This diagram also shows an available storing
procedure of hydrogen, organic chemical hydrides (OCH). One
of OCHs is methylcyclohexane (MCH) that is liquid from

126  C to 100  C to store about 500 normal liter of hydrogen in
1 L of liquid MCH. Because MCH can store a large amount of
Fig. 1 e Conceptual diagram of energy flow from renewable energy to utilization of hydrogen in ICE.
Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
hydrogen stably and compactly, MCH is thought to be one of
promising hydrogen energy carriers.
It is ideal that only hydrogen is used as a fuel for ICE,
because the ICE is developed to suite only for hydrogen com-
bustion characteristics. Some automakers have already
developed a hydrogen fueled ICE with a spark ignition system,
Otto engine. However, thermal efficiency of the Otto engine is
generally worse than a diesel engine. Then, hydrogen was
tried to be applied to a diesel engine which has higher
compression ratio to achieve better thermal efficiency than
the Otto engine. For example, Antunes et al. use a single cyl-
inder test engine with an intake air heating device to study
performance of a diesel engine fueled with hydrogen which
was directly injected into a combustion chamber to avoid
abnormal combustion such as pre-ignition. They reported
that the hydrogen diesel engine can increase in peak power by
14% compared to a conventional diesel engine, and that reli-
ability of hydrogen injector have to be improved much more
[2]. Fukuma et al. attempted a hot surface system to ignite
hydrogen jets directly injected into a combustion chamber
because auto-ignition temperature of hydrogen is much
higher than those of conventional fossil fuels [3]. They opti-
mized hydrogen injection patterns and a timing of ignition to
suppress heavy combustion vibrations due to quite high flame
speed of hydrogen.
On the other hand, realistically speaking, hydrogen is not
economically superior than conventional fossil derived fuels,
and hydrogen supply chain is not contracted yet. Therefore, at
least for the present, hydrogen would be introduced little by
little, and conventional fossil fuels are still necessary. From
the view point of this, multi-fuel combustion technologies in
ICE should be developed to introduce hydrogen in the near
future. One of multi-fuel combustion technologies is a diesel
dual fuel (DDF) combustion technology which uses two
different fuels, one is as a main fuel, and the other one is as an
ignitor. Schematic procedures for supplying and burning fuels
of DDF engine is shown in Fig. 2. Under DDF operation,
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1
Fig. 2 e Schematic procedures for supplying and burning fuels of DDF engine.
hydrogen is supplied with mixing intake gas, and the pre-
mixed gas is introduced into an engine cylinder. After the
premixed gas is compressed, diesel fuel is directly injected
into the engine cylinder to begin combustion of diesel fuel and
hydrogen in the premixed gas. Many researchers have re-
ported on hydrogen with DDF engines.
Tomita et al. study performance of hydrogen DDF engine
with a single cylinder four-stroke natural aspiration diesel
engine under various ranges of hydrogen fraction and diesel
fuel injection timing [4]. They reported performance of
exhaust gas emissions from the hydrogen DDF engine with
high hydrogen fraction, and suggested preferable methods to
reduce smoke and NOx emissions by adjusting injection tim-
ings of diesel fuel. Roy et al. reported other method to reduce
NOx emission with supercharging as well as controlling diesel
fuel injection timings [5]. Miyamoto et al. study on effects of
exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on performances of hydrogen
DDF engine under conditions at high load with low hydrogen
fraction. They reported that EGR can simultaneously reduce
smoke and NOx emissions from the hydrogen DDF engine [6].
Saravanan et al. investigated effects of port injection timings
and durations under a constant hydrogen gas flow rate con-
dition [7] or a constant pressure condition [8] on performance
of their hydrogen DDF engine. They also investigated effects
of hydrogen supplying methods such as positions of a
hydrogen carburetor or injector on intake gas pipe on the
hydrogen DDF engine performance [9]. McWilliams et al. study
effects of hydrogen fraction and EGR rate on performance of a
2.0-L natural aspiration four-cylinder hydrogen DDF engine
[10]. They concluded that advantages of using hydrogen are a
reduction in unburned gas component in exhaust gas and an
improvement of thermal efficiency. On the other hand, they
also concluded that disadvantages of hydrogen DDF operation
is an increase of NOx emission and a possibility of pre-ignition
occurring during compression stroke before a diesel fuel in-
jection event. In fact, our previous research on a multi-
cylinder hydrogen DDF engine shows that hydrogen DDF
operation is limited by this abnormal combustion [11]. There
are various possibilities to induce pre-ignition of hydrogen,
however clear reasons have not been analyzed yet. Because
pre-ignition possibly makes serious damage on hydrogen DDF
engine and limits operation range of this engine, it is signifi-
cantly important to resolve this issue. Zhenzhong et al.
Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
3
investigated pre-ignition and transforming process from pre-
ignition to backfire of hydrogen fueled engines, and
concluded that pre-ignition makes heat transfer to cylinder
walls increase and temperature of incandescent spot rise, so
hydrogen and air mixture is more early ignited, and then
backfire happen [12]. It is supposed that temperatures of cyl-
inder walls is strongly related to occurrence of pre-ignition,
and that pre-ignition is able to raise the wall temperatures
by increasing heat transfer of combustion gas to wall surfaces.
In this study, performance of hydrogen DDF engine with
changing conditions of hydrogen fraction to total input energy
under specific engine speed and load conditions is evaluated
and discussed. In addition, temperatures on a cylinder head
are measured, and discussions on reasons of pre-ignition
occurred in hydrogen DDF engine are conducted.
Experimental apparatus and procedures
A four-stroke water-cooled single cylinder test engine is
modified for hydrogen DDF operations. Fig. 3 is a schematic of
the experimental apparatus. In this study, hydrogen is sup-
plied from hydrogen gas cylinders, and a pressure of hydrogen
is regulated at 0.25 MPa (gage) for supplying to gas injectors
which are mounted between a supercharger and the test en-
gine. Hydrogen is injected into the intake pipe to make uni-
form mixtures of hydrogen, air, and others such as EGR gas.
Flow rate of hydrogen is adjusted by controlling periods of
hydrogen injection valve opening. Diesel fuel is pressurized at
a given pressure by a common rail system, and is injected
directly into the combustion chamber at a given timing.
A pressure transducer (KISTLER 6056A) is installed to
measure in-cylinder pressure, and its signals are amplified
(KISTLER 5011) and synchronized with crank angle signals.
These signals are recorded by a combustion analyzer (ONO
SOKKI DS3000). In-cylinder pressures of 100 combustion
events are acquired and averaged to analyze combustion
performance. Flow rate of fresh air is measured by a laminar
flow meter (Tsukasa sokken LFE-100B) and a calculator (Tsu-
kasa sokken LFC-200). The test engine is connected with an
alternating current dynamometer (HORIBA DYNAS3 LI145) to
control engine speed of rotation and to measure engine
torque.
4 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1

Fig. 3 e Schematic of experimental apparatus for performance test of hydrogen DDF operation.

Exhaust gas components are measured with three gas
analyzers; HORIBA MEXA-ONE, BEST SOKKI BOB-2000FT and
AVL micro soot sensor 483. Carbon monoxide (CO), carbon
dioxide (CO2), total hydrocarbon (THC) and nitrogen oxides
(NOx) concentrations in exhaust gas and CO2 concentration of
intake gas are measured by MEXA-ONE. A Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyzer (BOB-2000FT) is
installed to analyze detailed components of exhaust gas.
Because FTIR signals are affected by hydrogen gas, FTIR
analyzer is coupled with a hydrogen analyzer to compensate
effects of hydrogen concentrations on acquired data with
FTIR. The hydrogen analyzer is specially installed in BOB-
2000FT, and thermal conductivity method is used for the
hydrogen analyzer. Soot concentration is measured by AVL
483 that has measuring unit based on a photoacoustic mea-
surement method.
Specifications of the single cylinder test engine are shown
in Table 1. The single cylinder test engine is based on a com-
mercial four-cylinder diesel engine, however, any geometrical
design of a combustion chamber, compression ratio, and
diesel fuel injector are not changed. By contrast, we addi-
tionally install a mechanical supercharger, an air-cooled
intercooler and a low-pressure loop EGR system to control
quantity and quality of intake gas such as flow rate, boosting
pressure, oxygen concentration and so on. In addition, ther-
mocouple wires are embedded with the cylinder head to
measure temperatures of the cylinder head. Cylinder head
temperature gave useful information to analyze a mechanism
of crack development in cylinder heads of diesel engines [13].
Shalev et al. installed a K-type thermocouple 3 mm from the
surface of cylinder head to obtain temperatures in valve
bridge region between exhaust valves at maximum engine
load and speed. Mavropoulos installed 14 thermocouples at
various positions and in different depths (the shortest depth is
4 mm) [14]. These temperature measurements are available
for a long-term response application to analyze a non-periodic
temperature variation over a large number of engine cycles.
By contrast, as shown in Fig. 4, the thermocouple wire
installed in the cylinder head is 100 mm in thickness, and the
edge of thermocouple wires is located on the surface of the
cylinder head. Therefore the wire can respond a transient
variation of the cylinder head temperature.
Table 1 e Specifications of the test engine.
Engine type Single cylinder
Displacement volume L 1.3
Bore  stroke mm 115  125
Compression ratio 17.5:1
Fuel Hydrogen (port injection)
Diesel fuel (direct injection)

Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1 5

ratio, which changes with an amount of hydrogen supplied,

Fig. 4 e Thermocouple wires embedded with cylinder
head.
Results and discussion
Experimental conditions are shown in Table 2. In this study,
diesel fuel injection is split into two events in a combustion
cycle. One is a pre-injection supplying relatively small amount
of diesel fuel, and the other is a main-injection supplying the
rest of diesel fuel. Such a doubled injection procedure has
been generally adopted to commercial diesel engines. Quan-
tities of diesel fuel in main-injection events are adjusted in
proportion to hydrogen flow rate to keep indicated mean
effective pressures (IMEP) constant. In these experiments,
three different engine speed and load are tested with chang-
ing hydrogen fraction arbitrarily. In this study, hydrogen
fraction is an input energy base fraction, which means that
hydrogen fraction is defined as a percentage of lower calorific
value of hydrogen to a summation of lower calorific values of
hydrogen and diesel fuel.
Effects of hydrogen fraction on indicated thermal efficiency
Fig. 5 shows performance maps of indicated thermal effi-
ciency under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MPa. The color contour (in
the web version), horizontal axis, and vertical axis on the left
side express indicated thermal efficiency, engine speed, and
hydrogen fraction, respectively. The color contour (in the web
version) in Fig. 6 shows equivalence ratio to indicate the
relationship between hydrogen fraction and equivalence
intake air pressure, diesel fuel fraction, and engine load con-
ditions. As the hydrogen fraction is increased, equivalence
ratio of hydrogen in the intake gas is increased. Red shading
area (in the web version) shows the abnormal combustion,
pre-ignition in this study, occurs and limits the engine
experiments.
In case that IMEP is 0.3 MPa, no abnormal combustion is
detected. However, the maximum hydrogen fraction is limited
because an amount of diesel fuel becomes too small to ignite
stably as hydrogen fraction increases and diesel fuel fraction
decreases. In addition, the minimum hydrogen fraction is also
limited. It is supposed that hydrogen fraction is too low to
burn completely. In such cases of low hydrogen fraction at low
engine load conditions, a high amount of unburnt hydrogen is
detected in the exhaust gas. In terms of indicated thermal
efficiency at low loads, when the hydrogen fraction and en-
gine speed increase, the indicated thermal efficiency gets
worse. Because only small amount of fuel is required for lower
engine load operations, combustion of both diesel fuel and
hydrogen becomes unstable. In addition, as engine speed be-
comes faster, shorter period allows diesel fuel and hydrogen
burn. Therefore, it seems to be difficult to realize complete
combustion of hydrogen especially at higher hydrogen frac-
tion conditions. The reason of this could be strongly related to
combustion behavior of hydrogen DDF engine, which will be
discussed in the latter section. In consideration for thermal
efficiency, combustion stability and environmental impact,
diesel-only operation should be better than hydrogen/diesel
dual fuel one as the engine is running at low load.
In the cases under IMEP of 0.7 and 0.9 MPa, abnormal
combustion occurs as hydrogen fraction is high. In case under
IMEP of 0.7 MPa, abnormal combustion occurs as engine speed
is less than 1000 rpm. And as engine speed becomes faster,
hydrogen fraction can be increased, and better indicated
thermal efficiency can be achieved. When hydrogen fraction
exceeds about 50% at engine speed of over 1000 rpm, more
than 40% of indicated thermal efficiency is obtained. This
trend is unlike one obtained in the case under IMEP of 0.3 MPa.
In the case under IMEP of 0.9 MPa, indicated thermal efficiency
is improved more. Therefore, it is expected that the more
hydrogen fraction becomes, the high thermal efficiency can be
achieved. However, as hydrogen fraction exceeds around 80%
regardless of engine speed conditions, abnormal combustion

Table 2 e Experimental conditions of hydrogen DDF operation.

Engine speed rpm 600 1000 1500
IMEP MPa 0.3 0.7 0.9 0.3 0.7 0.9 0.3 0.7 0.9
Maximum H2 fraction (input energy base) % 68 64 83 65 75 86 57 90 73
Intake gas pressure kPa (abs.) 110 110 160 110 110 160 110 137 160
EGR ratio % 0
Intake O2 concentration vol% 19.3 18.3 18.3 19.4 18.3 18.3 19.8 17.8 18.6
Diesel fuel injection Pattern Double (pre/main)
Timing deg.CA ATDC Pre
2.7
1.7
1.7
5
6
3
6.9
4.9
9.9
Main 3.2 7 8 3 3 7 4.1 7.1 6.1
Quantity mm3/cycle Pre 4.8 4.8 2.7 2.7 2.1 1.5 1.0 1.0 1.2
Main 27e12 84e24 105e15 22e11 64e17 77e11 22e14 59e0 76e21
Pressure MPa 31 41 51 52 67 75 85 102 116

CA ¼ crank angle, ATDC ¼ after top dead center.

Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
6 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1

Fig. 5 e Performance map of indicated thermal efficiency under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MPa.

Fig. 6 e Equivalence map of indicated thermal efficiency under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MPa.

limits hydrogen DDF operation. These trends discussed above
should be related to combustion behavior of hydrogen DDF
operation. Therefore, effects of hydrogen fraction and IMEP on
combustion behavior and exhaust emissions of hydrogen DDF
operation will be discussed in the flowing sections.
Combustion behavior of hydrogen DDF operation
Fig. 7 represents histories of in-cylinder pressure, R.H.R. (rate
of heat release) and diesel fuel injection signal. Engine speed is
constant at 1500 rpm for all the experiments shown in this

Fig. 7 e In-cylinder pressure, R.H.R. and diesel fuel injection signal under engine speed of 1500 rpm and IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and
0.9 MPa condition (parameter: hydrogen fraction).

Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1 7

figure. In case under IMEP of 0.3 MPa, even when hydrogen
fraction is 57%, equivalence ratio of hydrogen in the premixed
gas is only 0.12 due to that the engine load is very low. All of
R.H.R. histories have twin peaks. They look like R.H.R. be-
haviors of conventional diesel fuel combustion with a double
injection. The first peak of R.H.R. is derived from combustion
of a small amount of diesel fuel and hydrogen entrained in the
diesel spray, and the second one is derived from combustion
of the main diesel injection and entrained hydrogen. This
tendency is observed regardless of hydrogen fraction. This
gives suggestions that such twin peaks are caused by double
injection and combustion of diesel fuel, and that hydrogen in
the premixed gas is too lean for flame to propagate through
the combustion chamber. Then, it is supposed that hydrogen
burns with diesel fuel and combustion products which
include oxidizer. In addition, if hydrogen is far from diesel fuel
or combustion products, e.g. near the walls of cylinder liner,
piston-ring crevice, and fire-deck, it is difficult that hydrogen
could burn completely. The issue on unburnt hydrogen
emission will be discussed more deeply in the next section.
In the cases that IMEP is 0.7 and 0.9 MPa, the similar R.H.R.
behaviors discussed above is also observed at higher load
conditions with low hydrogen fraction. On the other hand,
when equivalence ratio of hydrogen exceeds about 0.2 at
higher hydrogen fractions, R.H.R. histories of hydrogen DDF
operation don't show twin peaks. After or during combustion
of firstly injected diesel fuel, R.H.R. continuously increase to-
ward the time at second injection start. This behavior is
assumed to be due to flame propagation through hydrogen
mixture. Although such flame propagation of hydrogen
moderately progresses combustion, it can advance combus-
tion phase to bring an improvement of thermal efficiency. As
shown in Fig. 5, indicated thermal efficiency is greatly
improved by about 5% as hydrogen fraction is increased from
0 to the maximum fraction.
Performance of exhaust gas emissions of hydrogen DDF
engine
Fig. 8 indicates exhaust gas emission performance under
hydrogen DDF operation at various conditions of engine load
and hydrogen fraction. Fig. 9 represents performance maps of
unburnt hydrogen which indicates a ratio of unburnt
hydrogen to supplied hydrogen. In case of low engine load
conditions of which IMEP is 0.3 MPa, unburnt components
such as hydrogen, THC, CO, and soot are emitted much more
than those at high loads. When only diesel fuel is used
(hydrogen fraction is 0%), THC and CO emissions are signifi-
cantly worse than those at higher engine load conditions. An
increase in hydrogen fraction can improve unburnt emissions
derived from diesel fuel because of a decrease in diesel fuel
quantity along with an increase in hydrogen fraction. How-
ever, as hydrogen fraction increases, unburnt hydrogen also
increases as shown in Fig. 9. Therefore, thermal efficiency
becomes worse which is represented in Fig. 5. Gatts et al.
conducted the similar experiments of hydrogen/diesel dual
fuel engine [15e17], and their results also showed that
hydrogen emission at low loads is linearly increased with an
increase in the amount of hydrogen supplied. Moreover, in
terms of thermal efficiency, they concluded that with the
addition of hydrogen at low load operation, the deterioration
in thermal efficiency is due mainly to the emissions of the
unburnt hydrogen, and that the reduction in thermal effi-
ciency resulting from the emissions of hydrogen is a linear

Fig. 8 e Exhaust gas emission under engine speed of 1500 rpm and IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MPa condition (parameter:
hydrogen fraction).

Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
8 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1
Fig. 9 e Unburnt hydrogen map of indicated thermal efficiency under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MPa.
function of the hydrogen emissions for the range of experi-
ments conducted in their research [15]. The unburnt hydrogen
emitted at low loads is supposed to be caused by that equiv-
alence ratio of hydrogen is too low to form propagating flame
even as hydrogen fraction is over 50%, as shown in Fig. 6. In
consideration of that NOx emission decreases with an in-
crease in hydrogen fraction, source of NOx at low engine load
conditions seems to be derived from combustion of diesel fuel.
In the cases under IMEP of 0.7 and 0.9 MPa, the level of
unburnt components derived from diesel fuel is much lower
than one under IMEP of 0.3 MPa regardless of hydrogen frac-
tion as shown in Fig. 8. A great reduction of CO2 emission is
achieved by replacing diesel fuel with hydrogen in hydrogen
DDF operations, and soot emission is slightly decreased with
an increase in hydrogen fraction. The level of NOx emission at
high loads is higher than one at lower loads. Although NOx
emission increases with an increase in hydrogen fraction, the
increment of NOx is not significant. This tendency had been
seen in the previous experiments [11]. The reason is that an
increase in hydrogen fraction affects oxygen concentration in
intake gas. It is supposed that as hydrogen fraction increases,
oxygen concentration decreases to lower combustion tem-
perature. In terms of unburnt hydrogen, as shown in Fig. 9, it is
clear that as compared with the condition at IMEP of 0.3 MPa,
unburnt hydrogen is significantly improved. However, serious
unburnt hydrogen emits as hydrogen fraction is lower than
about 20%. This issue decides the lowest limit of hydrogen
fraction along with various engine speed and load.
On the ground of what has been observed above, hydrogen
DDF operation is summarized below. A schematic diagram of
typical combustion behaviors of hydrogen DDF operation
could be described in Fig. 10. In this typical case, hydrogen
fraction is high enough to propagate flame spontaneously. It is
supposed that combustion in hydrogen DDF engine pro-
gresses with following steps:
(1) The first diesel fuel injected into the combustion
chamber ignites, and heat release occurs around the
diesel jet flame. (Fig. 10(1))
(2) The diesel jet flame penetrates into air and hydrogen
mixtures with entraining these mixtures. The entrained
Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
hydrogen burns with the diesel fuel, but hydrogen just
around the diesel jet flame ignites. Its flame begins to
propagate through hydrogen air mixtures. (Fig. 10(2))
(3) The secondly injected diesel fuel penetrates into burnt
gas of diesel fuel and hydrogen while hydrogen flame
propagation is progressing. (Fig. 10(3))
In terms of NOx formation in hydrogen DDF operation, it
should be related with temperature, oxygen concentration,
and heat capacity in the combustion chamber. Temperature
should be high enough to form thermal NOx at least locally in
the chamber because a part of diesel fuel injected burns before
the time when hydrogen is ignited or its flame expands. On
the other hand, due to that a high amount of hydrogen is
premixed with fresh air, oxygen concentration in the chamber
should be decreased. This may cause suppression of NOx
formation. In addition, the burnt gas of hydrogen into where
the second diesel fuel penetrates should have low oxygen
concentration and high heat capacity because hydrogen flame
consumes oxygen and form steam. Then, the burnt gas of
hydrogen might behave as an internal EGR. The reasons
described above are supposed to encourage and discourage
NOx formation in hydrogen DDF operation.
Effects of hydrogen fraction on cylinder head temperature
and abnormal combustion
As described in the introduction, abnormal combustion such
as pre-ignition is so severe issue in hydrogen DDF operation
that engine load and hydrogen fraction should be limited.
Fig. 11 represents contour maps of temperature at cylinder
head under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MPa conditions. Cylinder
head temperature is recorded by the thermocouple wire indi-
cated in Fig. 4. Vertical axis of contour maps in Fig. 11 is
hydrogen fraction and horizontal axis is engine speed. This red
shading area (in the web version) means the operating range
that abnormal combustion limits hydrogen DDF operation.
In case that IMEP is 0.3 MPa, cylinder head temperature
measured in this study is about less than 150  C regardless of
any operative conditions, and no abnormal combustion is
observed, as represented in Fig. 11. By contrast, pre-ignition
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1 9

Fig. 10 e Schematic diagram of typical combustion behaviors with hydrogen DDF operation. (1) First injection of diesel fuel
and ignition of hydrogen mixture. (2) Flame propagation through hydrogen mixture. (3) Second injection of diesel fuel and
penetration through burnt gas of hydrogen mixture.

Fig. 11 e Contours maps of cylinder head temperature under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MPa.

occurs in both cases of IMEP of 0.7 and 0.9 MPa. Severe
abnormal combustion such as pre-ignition and knocking is
observed. In the experiments, knocking sounds were some-
times heard, but most of abnormal combustion was diagnosed
as pre-ignition. If onset of heat release appeared before diesel
injection events, that was justified as pre-ignition. That is one
of the reasons why cylinder head temperature is related with
the occurrence of abnormal combustion. As hydrogen fraction
is about below 50%, no abnormal combustion occurs even
under IMEP of 0.7 and 0.9 MPa. Generally speaking, a water-
cooled engine has a cooling system which carries extra heat
of the chamber walls away to prevent sticking and super heat
of the walls. As flow rate of cooling water is directly syn-
chronized with engine speed, capability of cooling system
changes with a change in engine speed. Unlike such general
engines, the single cylinder test engine used in this study is
cooled down by an external cooling system which doesn't
coincide with any engine operative conditions. Therefore, the
cylinder head temperature gradually rises along with an in-
crease in engine speed in this study.
As hydrogen fraction is over about 50%, it is found that the
cylinder head temperature becomes strongly dependent on
hydrogen fraction. This tendency is supposed to be related
with the change in combustion behavior due to equivalence
ratio of hydrogen. As described in Section 3.2, the heat release
in conjunction with the flame propagation of hydrogen is
observed in the R.H.R. histories in the cases that equivalence
ratio exceeds about 0.2. Then, it is supposed that if equiva-
lence ratio of hydrogen is over about 0.2, hydrogen flame could
expand thorough hydrogen mixtures and towards the

Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
10 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1
chamber walls. Therefore, the tendency of the cylinder head
temperature significantly changes whether equivalence ratio
is under or over about 0.2. The cylinder head temperatures rise
with an in increase in hydrogen fraction or equivalence ratio
of hydrogen. Finally, it is also supposed that when equiva-
lence ratio of hydrogen exceeds about 0.35, abnormal com-
bustion of hydrogen occurs at the hot region in the
combustion chamber. At the moment, it is not clarified that
auto-ignition of hydrogen or surface ignition occurs near or on
the chamber walls as the abnormal combustion. In any case,
such abnormal combustion limits the operative range of
hydrogen DDF engine.
Conclusions
This study is focusing on the hydrogen DDF engine especially
for CHP, and it is investigated to clarify the combustion
characteristics of hydrogen DDF operation and the issue such
as abnormal combustion. The single cylinder diesel engine is
used with gas injectors for supplying hydrogen. The perfor-
mance of the hydrogen DDF operation with changing wide
range of engine speed, load, and hydrogen fraction is evalu-
ated. The conclusions obtained in this study are described as
follows;
 At low engine loads, as equivalence ratio of hydrogen
mixture is low and frame propagation through hydrogen
mixture isn't observed in R.H.R. histories. It causes the in-
crease in unburnt hydrogen emission and the decrease in
thermal efficiency. On the other hands, flame propagation
that occurs at higher loads, and higher hydrogen fraction
brings the advancement of combustion phase which im-
proves thermal efficiency, and which decreases unburnt
hydrogen emission. It is sure that CO2 emission can be
significantly reduced by replacing conventional fossil fuel
with hydrogen.
 NOx emission at higher engine loads of hydrogen DDF
operation is higher than one with the conventional diesel
fuel operation. Although NOx emission increases with an
increase in hydrogen fraction, the increment of NOx is not
significant because an increase in hydrogen fraction de-
creases oxygen concentration in intake gas. It is supposed
that the decrease in oxygen concentration could prevent
combustion temperature and formation of NOx. In addi-
tion, some amount of diesel fuel burns into the burnt gas of
hydrogen which has low oxygen concentration and high
heat capacity. Therefore, the burnt gas of hydrogen could
play a role as an internal EGR.
 The abnormal combustion such as pre-ignition is observed
as hydrogen fraction is over about 50% under higher engine
load operations of hydrogen DDF engine. The relationship
between the cylinder head temperature and engine speed
significantly changes with the increase in hydrogen frac-
tion or equivalence ratio. As hydrogen fraction is over
about 50%, it is found that the cylinder head temperature
becomes strongly dependent on hydrogen fraction. This
tendency is supposed to be related with the change in
combustion behavior due to the flame propagation of
hydrogen which is observed in the cases that equivalence
Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152
ratio exceeds about 0.2. It is supposed that hydrogen flame
could expand thorough hydrogen mixtures and towards
the chamber walls so that the cylinder head temperatures
rise with an in increase in hydrogen fraction or equivalence
ratio of hydrogen.
 When equivalence ratio of hydrogen exceeds about 0.35,
abnormal combustion of hydrogen occurs at the hot region
in the combustion chamber. At the moment, it is not
clarified that auto-ignition of hydrogen or surface ignition
occurs near or on the chamber walls as the abnormal
combustion. In any case, such abnormal combustion limits
the operative range of hydrogen DDF engine.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by Fukushima Prefecture. All the
experiments were conducted in Fukushima renewable energy
institute, AIST (FREA), which was established in April 2014.
The research engine used in this study is based on a mass-
production engine (type: ISUZU 4HK1). Isuzu advanced engi-
neering center, ltd. (IAEC) kindly supported the engine
equipment with hydrogen DDF operation. The authors greatly
appreciate IAEC's support.
references
[1] Okada Y, Shimura M. Development of large-scale H2 storage
and transportation technology with Liquid Organic Hydrogen
Career (LOHC). Technical paper at Joint GCC-JAPAN
Environment Symposia. 2013.
[2] Gomes Antunes JM, Mikalsen R, Roskilly AP. An experimental
study of a direct injection compression ignition hydrogen
engine. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2009;34(15):6516e22.
[3] Fukuma T, Fujita T, Pichainarong P, Furuhama S. Hydrogen
combustion study in direct injection hot surface ignition
engine. SAE Paper 1986. http://dx.doi.org/10.4271/861579.
[4] Tomita E, Kawahara N, Piao Z, Fujita S, Hamamoto Y.
Hydrogen combustion and exhaust emissions ignited with
diesel oil in a dual fuel engine. SAE Paper 2001. http://
dx.doi.org/10.4271/2001-01-3503.
[5] Roy MM, Tomita E, Kawahara N, Harada Y, Sakane A. An
experimental investigation on engine performance and
emissions of a supercharged H2-diesel dual-fuel engine. Int J
Hydrogen Energy 2010;35(2):844e53.
[6] Miyamoto T, Hasegawa H, Mikami M, Kojima N, Kabashima H,
Urata Y. Investigation of low temperature combustion with
hydrogen addition to intake gas and high rate EGR. Soc.
Automot. Eng. Japan 2010. 2010-08-0480.
[7] Saravanan N, Nagarajan G, Dhanasekaran C, Kalaiselvan KM.
Experimental investigation of hydrogen fuel injection in DI
dual fuel diesel engine. SAE Paper 2007. http://dx.doi.org/
10.4271/2007-01-1465.
[8] Saravanan N, Nagarajan G. An experimental investigation on
a diesel engine with hydrogen fuel injection in intake
manifold. SAE Paper 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.4271/2008-01-
1784.
[9] Saravanan N, Nagarajan G. Experimental investigation on
performance and emission characteristics of dual fuel DI
diesel engine with hydrogen fuel. SAE Paper 2009. http://
dx.doi.org/10.4271/2009-26-0032.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) 1 e1 1 11

[10] McWilliam L, Megaritis T, Zhao H. Experimental
investigation of the effects of combined hydrogen and diesel
combustion on the emissions of a HSDI diesel engine. SAE
Paper 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.4271/2008-01-1787.
[11] Suzuki Y, Tsujimura T, Mita T. The performance of multi-
cylinder hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine. SAE Paper 2015.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4271/2015-24-2458.
[12] Zhenzhong Y, Lijun W, Manlou H, Yongdi C. Research on
optimal control to resolve the contradictions between
restricting abnormal combustion and improving power
output in hydrogen fueled engines. Int J Hydrogen Energy
2012;37(1):774e82.
[13] Shalev M, Zvirin Y, Stotter A. Experimental and analytical
investigation of the heat transfer and thermal stresses in a
cylinder head of a diesel engine. Int J Mech Sci
1983;25(7):471e83.
[14] Mavropoulos GC. Experimental study of the interactions
between long and short-term unsteady heat transfer
responses on the in-cylinder and exhaust manifold diesel
engine surfaces. Appl Energy 2011;88:867e81.
[15] Gatts T, Li H, Liew C, Liu S, Spencer T, Wayne S, et al. An
experimental investigation of H2 emissions of a 2004 heavy-
duty diesel engine supplemented with H2. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2010;35(20):11349e56.
[16] Liu S, Li H, Liew C, Gatts T, Wayne S, Shade B, et al. An
experimental investigation of NO2 emission characteristics
of a heavy-duty H2-diesel dual fuel engine. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2011;36(18):12015e24.
[17] Liew C, Li H, Nuszkowski J, Liu S, Gatts T, Atkinson R, et al.
An experimental investigation of the combustion process of
a heavy-duty diesel engine enriched with H2. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2010;35(20):11357e65.

Please cite this article in press as: Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y, The utilization of hydrogen in hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.152