Hydrogen-Diesel IC Engine
a​ b
Abstract:
A hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine is very advantageous
on exhaust emissions compared to conventional engine such as
diesel engine. Diesel engine is essential part for modern
automobiles. However, limited amount of fossil fuel as well as
pollution caused by these fuels is forcing researchers to use
alternative fuel such as H​2 for fuel in IC engine. One approach is to
build H​2 combustion engine. However, this is difficult due to
explosive nature of H​2 combustion. Another method is to use
co-combustion with conventional fuels. This increases efficiency of
conventional engine and reduces dependency on fossil fuels only. In
this paper, we look on impact on using H​2 as fuel with diesel in diesel
engine. Various researches have shown that adding H​2 lead to
reduction in unburnt fuel, soot particles. Increasing H​2 fraction leads
to decrease in indicated thermal efficiency. When H​2 fraction is
increased above a fraction about 20%, there is rapid increase in NO​x
emissions. Also increasing H​2 fraction lead to increasepeak
in-cylinder pressure and peak heat release value. The aim of these
researches is to develop a dual fuel engine with very low emission
and help in transition from conventional engine eventually to
hydrogen engines
Keywords:
Dual Fuel Engine, Hydrogen Fuel, Engine Parameters, Emission
characteristics.
1. Introduction:
Concern about the price, availability and pollutant emission by fossil
fuel based engine is causing more emphasis on alternative fuels.
Hydrogen fuel cell is generally considered as the future of the energy
especially in the field of transportation. Simultaneously growth in
the field of hydrogen/hydrocarbon mixed fuel engine is rapidly
progressing. Hydrogen has potential to reduce pollutants like CO,
soot particle, etc., while displacing a fraction of fossil fuel. Diesel
engine has considerable fuel efficiency compared to gasoline engine
that currently used in majority of cars and almost all two wheelers in
India. Diesel engine is used in heavy vehicles and high power needs.
Dual fuel engine is superior compared to fuel cell in the sense that it
can use hydrogen even if it is not very pure. It is also low cost
compared to fuel cell as it does not require rare metals used as
catalyst in Fuel Cell. IN ideal case only hydrogen can used as a fuel.
Some automobile manufacturers already developed spark ignition
hydrogen fueled Otto Engine. However thermal efficiency of Otto
engine is less than Diesel engine. So effort for using hydrogen fuel in
​Akash Patel​ , Navjot Singh​
​ a. ID No: 11640110, B Tech, Mechanical Department, IIT Bhilai,
b. ID No: 11640580, B Tech, Mechanical Department, IIT Bhilai
diesel has been done to increase efficiency. For example, Antunes et
al. use a single cylinder 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 reliability of hydrogen injector
have to be improved much more [1]. 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 [2].
They optimized hydrogen injection patterns and a timing of ignition
to suppress heavy combustion vibrations due to quite high flame
speed of hydrogen. ​In recent years, some researchers have already
made significant effort on the numerical and experimental studying
of the combustion process and pollution formation of hydrogen-
fueled engines [3-6].
However, hydrogen fuel engine is economically not viable for cost of
production and storage of hydrogen is very high. Using it in dual fuel
engine make sense as it help to reduce pollution and comparatively
less costly. There are many researches to check the effect of dual
fuel on pollutants like CO, unburnt hydrocarbon, soot particles, NO​x​,
etc. M Deb et al showed that NO​x emission dramatically increased
with increasing load and hydrogen energy content, respectively.
Conversely, HC and CO​2 emission concentration declined with
increasing of hydrogen energy content. CO emission concentration
kept low value at all the loads [7]. Tarkan Sandalcı et al showed
indicated specific NO​x emissions do not change at the low hydrogen
energy fraction, but, with an increase in the hydrogen amount (36%
and 46% hydrogen energy fraction of total fuel), a dramatic increase
(58.8% and 159.7%, respectively) is observed. Additionally, the peak
in-cylinder pressure and the peak heat release rate values increase
with the increasing hydrogen rate [8].
With increasing hydrogen content, a slight rise is observed in total
unburned hydrocarbons although CO​2 and CO gaseous emissions
reduced considerably. Maximum in-cylinder gas pressure and rate of
heat release peak values raised with hydrogen fraction [9]. Adre
Marcelino de Morais et al [10] used diesel oil (B5) and hydrogen in
diesel engine to check the effects of H​2 on pollutants. They checked
specific fuel consumption, effective engine efficiency and volumetric
efficiency of the engine. They directly injected fuel in the
combustion chamber. They substituted diesel with hydrogen in
engine on energy basis and varied the contribution of hydrogen.
Result showed no effect of specific fuel consumption and engine
efficiency and reduction in CO​2 emission. S.V. Khandal et al [11]
checked the effects of hydrogen fuel flow rate (HFFR), fuel injection
timing and EGR on dual fuel engine performance. He optimized
these parameters and found maximum HFFR for smooth running of
engine.
2. Experimental Setup:
2.1 For single cylinder Diesel Engine:
S.V. Khandal et al used locally available available honge and cotton
seed oils to derive BHO and BCO (BDFs) to be injected as pilot fuels
in combination with H​2 as the inducted fuel. Various properties of
BHO and BCO were measured at Bangalore Test House Laboratory,
Bengaluru, India. ​Tables 1 and 2 ​shows the various properties
measured. The schematic of the experimental set up for the DF
engine used in the current investigation is shown in ​Fig. 1​.The
engine used for performing test was a four-stroke single cylinder
direct injection water cooled CI engine. The engine is running at a
rated speed of 1500 rev/min and had a conventional fuel injection
system . The number of injection nozzle holes is six each of diameter
0.2 mm . The injector opening pressure was 205 bar and the static IT
was 23 bTDC as given by the engine manufacturer . H​2 flow rate is
varied between 0.1 to 0.22 kg/h, ITs in between 19 and 27bTDC and
EGR is varied in step of 5% between 0 to 25% with BHO/BCO
powered engine operation. The engine speed is controlled by a
governor . The investigation is carried to study the effects of HFFR, IT
and EGR on the DF engine performance powered by BDFs-H​2
combination. The toroidal re-entrant combustion chamber (TRCC) is
01. Hydrogen cylinder 05. Wet type flame trap 09. PC interfaced to engine 13. Proximity sensor
02. Rotameter 06. Dry flame arrester 10. Exhaust gas analyzer 14. Diesel tank
03. Gas flow meter 07. Diesel Engine 11. Smoke meter
04. Inline flame trap 08. Eddy current dynamo meter 12. Air box
present in engine and has overhead valves operated through push
rods. Water is circulated through the jackets of engine block and
cylinder head to cool the engine. The cylinder pressure is measured
using a piezoelectric pressure pickup fixed into cylinder head.
Cylinder gas pressure and temperature within the engine CC varies
with HRR of the fuel. The fuel economy, BP and the engine out
emissions are strongly affected by cylinder gas pressure and
temperature . It is very insightful for studying the fuel combustion
process. Calculation of heat release rate (HRR) is very essential for
engine research and a computer program was specifically developed
for this purpose. HRR was calculated for each CA using a first law
analysis of the average cylinder gas pressure versus CA variation
obtained from 100 cycles using the equation (1).
Qapp = ( ) p.dv + ( ) v.dv + Q
γ
γ−1
γ
γ−1 wall (1)
Qapp - Apparent heat release rate (J)
γ - Ratio of specific heats C​p​/ (C​p -​ R )
R - Gas constant in (J/kmole K)
C​p -​ Specific heat at constant pressure(J/kmole K)
v - Instantaneous volume of the cylinder (m​3​)
p - Cylinder pressure (bar)
Qwall - Heat transfer to the wall (J)
15.Biodiesel tank
 Fig. 1. Experimental setup for dual fuel arrangement of current investigation. [11]

Assumption for this calculation was considering cylinder gas to S.No. Properties Diesel BHO BCO ASTM standard
behave as an ideal gas (air) with specific heats being dependent on
temperature. The specific heat was found using the equation (2). 1 Viscosity (cSt at 40C) 4.59 5.6 5.00 ASTM D445

[
C p = 3.6359 − 1.3376T
1000 + 3.29421T 2
1×106
− −1.91142T 3
1×109
+ 0.275462T 4
1×1012 ]R 2 Flash point (C) 65 163 167 ASTM D93
D3278 - 96
​(2) 3 Calorific Value (kJ/kg) 45000 36010 39648 ASTM D5865
4 Density (kg/m3 at 15 C) 830 890 885 ASTM D4052
5 Cetane Number 45-55 40-42 45 ASTM D613
for T < 1000 K.

[
C p = 3.04473 − 1.338056T
1000 + 0.488256T 2
1×106
− 0.0855475T 3
1×109
+ 0.00570127T 4
1×1012 ]R 6 Cloud Point (C) 15 - 7 ASTM D2500

7 Pour Point (C) 1 - 4 ASTM D97

(3) 8 Carbon Residue (%) 0.1 - 0.42 ASTM D4530

9 Type of oil Fossil Non Non -

for T < 1000 K. fuel edible edible
Heat transferred to the wall was determined with the Hohenberg
equation (4) and assuming the wall temperature to be 723 K .
2. Properties of H​2​ [11]

Qwall = h×A × [T g − T w ] (4) S. No. Properties

1 Chemical composition H​2

h = C 1 V −0.06 p0.08 T −0.4 (V p + C 2 )0.8 (5) 2 Auto ignition temperature(K) 858

3 Minimum ignition energy (mJ) 0.02

4 Flammability limits (% volume in air) 4-75
h - Heat transfer coefficient in W/m​2​ K . 5 Stoichiometric air fuel ratio on mass basis 34.3

6 Density at 15 C and 1 bar pressure 0.0838

C​1​ & C​2​ - Constants, 130 & 1.4.
7 Net heating value (MJ/kg) 119.93
V - Cylinder volume in m​3
8 Flame velocity (cm/s) 265-325

9 Octane number 130

1. Properties of various fuels. [11]

2.2 For 4 cylinder Diesel Engine: time-based data acquisition was a custom National Instruments Lab
View program. A FP-2015, an FP-AO-210, an FP-DO-403, an
Gregory K. Lilik [12] et al done experiment for 4 cylinder engine​. ​The FP-AI-102, an FP-AI-112 and three FP-TC-120 modules of National
engine used for Steady-state combustion and emissions testing was
DDC/VM Motor 2.5L, 4-cylinder, turbocharged, common rail, direct
injection light-duty diesel engine. Engine specifications are given
3. Engine Properties [12]
below in Table 3. Load was generated using a 250HP Eaton eddy
current dynamometer which was water-cooled and coupled to the Engine DDC 2.5L TD DI-4V automotive
2.5L DDC engine. The Dialog Test mate control unit was used for diesel engine
controlling the engine and dynamometer. Program used for Displacement 2.5L
Bore 92 mm Valve train 4 valves/cylinder
Stroke 94 mm Instruments Field Point modules were used to read analog signals
from pressure transducers, thermocouples, mass flow meters, and
Compression ratio 17.5
emissions analyzers. The data collected by the Field Point modules
Connecting rod length 159 mm was saved every 10 s during 15 min of sampling per test.
Rated power 103 kW @ 4000 rpm
Peak torque 340 Nm @ 1800 rpm
Injection system Electronically controlled
common rail injection system

Fig. 2 – DDC 2.5L EGR/H​2​ flow diagram. [12]

2.3 For Diesel Generator Nominal voltage 12 V

Jet type Single stream
Andre Morais performed dual fuel experiments on a diesel Number of holes 1
generator. A diesel power generator of 50 kW of nominal power was
used in the experiments. A four-cylinder, direct injection, naturally
aspirated diesel engine is used as power generator. A mechanical A hydrogen injection system was modified for the engine intake
fuel pump and four injectors are used in direct fuel injection system system (​Fig. 3​). To install the injection pipes four holes were drilled
of engine. The original diesel oil injection system was used for the in the intake manifold, located at a distance of 130 mm from the
tests with hydrogen. intake valve and with inclination of 45 to the intake air main stream.
The injection system developed originally for using in natural gas
4. Injector Properties [10] engines was used. ​Table 4 ​shows the characteristics of the hydrogen
injectors. The hydrogen injection system location does not interfere
Parameter Value with the intake system in case of engine operation with diesel oil
Total length 47 mm only. To verify that the hydrogen injection system provides uniform
Total mass 0.035 kg
distribution to all cylinders, preliminary tests were performed with
Valve body material Stainless steel
one operating injector at a time, while the other three injectors
Solenoid valve material Copper
Operation temperature 40 Ce130 C were disabled. The injected hydrogen mass flow rate was same for
Minimum voltage 6V all injectors at a common operating condition. Since the fuel was
multiport injected, the fuel mass injected at a specific cylinder port
would certainly reach that cylinder.
A dedicated electronic control unit (ECU) was used for controlling
hydrogen injection. A magnetic sensor for engine speed fixed on
engine crankshaft fed signal in the hydrogen ECU.
Fig. 3 (a) Schematics of H​2​ injection system positioning [10]
Fig. 3(b) H​2​ injectors installed in the intake manifold [10]
Fig. 3 (c) H​2​ injection system installed in the engine. [10]
3. Result and Discussion:
3.1 ​Effect of hydrogen fraction on​ ​Hydrogen fuel flow
rate:
Andre´ Marcelino de Morais et al showed the variation in HFFR
(Hydrogen fuel flow rate) at different loads with different ratio of
hydrogen in the fuel. The amount of hydrogen needed increases
with increasing load. However, the hydrogen ratio in fuel increased
to meet this demand. Also the fuel flow rate increases. The figure
below clearly shows that hydrogen consumption increases
proportionately with load.
Fig. 4 Variation of hydrogen flow rate with load power
and hydrogen concentration in the fuel. [10]
3.2 Gaseous emissions- particulate matter
measurements with constant injection timing:
Most of the particulate matter are generated during mixing
controlled combustion as amount of oxygen for combustion is
limited due to presence of products in combustion chamber. This
lead to competition between formation of soot and oxidation of
soot. When temperature is high there is less soot particles and high
soot when temperature is low.
Fig. 5 Brake specific PM emissions of the four modes
tested, with 0%, 2.5%, 7.5% and 15% hydrogen
substitution on an energy basis. [12]
T​his causes high soot at low load and low soot at higher loads.
Higher the apparent heat release higher the oxidation of soot and
lower amount of soot released. Adding hydrogen leads to low soot
emission at higher load and high soot emission at lower loads. At
15% hydrogen substitution, the 3600 rpm modes at 25% and 75% of
maximum output brake specific PM emissions decreased by 9% and
15% brake specific PM relative to the diesel, respectively, while the
1800 rpm mode at 25% maximum output increased brake specific
PM emissions by 37% and the 1800 rpm mode at 75% maximum
output increased brake specific PM emissions by a factor of 1.27.
These can be understood by looking at apparent heat release. At low
engine speed, hydrogen decreases the apparent heat release rates,
reducing the oxidation of diesel soot. In the high speed modes there
is a small reduction in apparent heat release rates, but the decrease
of hydrocarbon fuel levels during hydrogen substitution reduces the
amount of carbon available to form soot. Also, at higher levels of
hydrogen substitution, less air is present in the intake charge,
leaving less oxygen to be entrained into the diesel spray flame. This
shift to richer stoichiometry in the spray flame offsets the reduced
amount of carbon available to form soot.
3.3 Effect of hydrogen fraction on indicated thermal
efficiency:
Fig.6​ Performance map of indicated thermal efficiency under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MP [14]
Fig. 6 [13-14] shows performance maps of indicated thermal
efficiency under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MPa. The color contour,
horizontal axis, and vertical axis on the left side express indicated
thermal efficiency, engine speed, and hydrogen fraction,
respectively. The color contour in Fig. 7 shows equivalence ratio to
indicate the relationship between hydrogen fraction and
equivalence ratio, which changes with an amount of hydrogen
supplied, intake air pressure, diesel fuel fraction, and engine load
conditions. Equivalence ratio of hydrogen in intake increases with
increase in hydrogen fraction. Red shading area shows the abnormal
combustion, pre-ignition in this study, occurs and limits the engine
experiments.
At 0.3 MPa, no abnormal combustion is detected even at high
fraction of hydrogen. However maximum amount of hydrogen is
limited by the fact that when amount of diesel is very small it is
unable to ignite the hydrogen. Also minimum amount of hydrogen is
limited. When amount of hydrogen is too low to burn completely,
 Fig.7 Equivalence map of indicated thermal efficiency under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MP [14]
high amount of unburnt hydrogen is present in exhaust. At low
loads, increase in hydrogen fraction and engine speed decreases
indicated thermal efficiency. Because only small amount of fuel is
needed at low loads which causes unstable burning of fuel mixture.
Also increasing engine speed decreases time available for both
hydrogen and diesel to burn. So at low loads, only diesel fuel engine
is better than DDF (Diesel Dual Fuel) engine.
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 when engine speed is below 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
3.5 NO​x​ emissions:
Conversion of nitrogen and oxygen to NO​x ​occurs when the
temperature in the combustion chamber is very high. NO​x is
collective term used to refer to nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen
dioxide (NO​2​). NO​x emissions form in the high-temperature burned
gas region, which is non-uniform, and formation rates are highest in
the close to stoichiometric regions Fig. 8 depicts the effect of HFFR
engine speed conditions, abnormal combustion takes place, thus
limiting fraction of hydrogen.
3.4 Gaseous emissions- other gaseous emissions
measurements with constant injection timing:
CO​2 emission decreases with increase in hydrogen fraction as
expected. In general with 15% hydrogen substitution, CO​2 emissions
reduced by roughly 12%. The variation in carbon monoxide (CO) and
unburnt hydrocarbon (HC) depends on equivalence ratio. In general,
HC emissions were observed to decrease roughly 10% compared to
the diesel baseline and CO emissions reduced by roughly 20% at 15%
hydrogen substitution. However, amount of decrease in HC and CO
is not very significant. Furthermore, a compression ignition engine
typically operates at globally fuel lean equivalence ratio and
produces less engine-out HC and CO emissions than spark ignited
engines.
and BP on the changes in the engine out NO​x emissions of a DF
engine. Higher level of tail pipe NO​x was observed with the injected
fuels and also it increased with the increase in H​2 induction at all
loads.
 Fig. 8. Variation in the NO​x​ emission with HFFR and BP [11]
The possible reason may be higher HRR and high flame front speed
of hydrogen. Biodiesel has lower NO​x than mineral diesel due to fact
that it has inferior combustion compared due mineral diesel. H​2
burns at higher temperature and very rapidly. The fast burning of
hydrogen decreases ID (ignition delay) and CD (combustion
duration) which resulted in higher HRR and peak pressure (PP) and
engine out NO​x emission. Similar results can be observed in the
literature. The DF operation showed about 8-9% higher NO​x with
BDF fuel at a maximum permissible HFFR of 0.22 kg/h and at 100%
​
load in comparison with normal CI engine run on diesel. Specific
emissions of NO​x were observed to increase but only when the
energy contribution from H​2 was increased above the 10% level. This
increase in NO​x emissions was attributed to H​2​-diesel co-combustion
resulting in higher in-cylinder temperatures relative to diesel
fuel-only combustion [15].
Conclusion:
The hydrogen up 20% fraction with diesel oil can used safely in
conventional diesel engine without any modification in engine. Fuel
consumption and efficiency remain unaffected when H​2 is used as
complementary fuel in stationary engine with unmodified injection
setting. Optimization can increase efficiency and other results.
Maximum fuel consumption reduction at 75% of rated power at all
hydrogen concentration. The application of H​2 reduces CO​2 emission
by 12%. This indicates the employment of hydrogen as a useful
strategy to reduce the global warming impacts of engine exhaust
gas. That will depend on the hydrogen source and the amount of
upstream CO​2 associated with hydrogen production. The benefits of
hydrogen substitution are significant, as results show that
substitution of the diesel fuel with hydrogen can be accomplished
with little or no detrimental effect. Thus, substantial quantities of
diesel fuel can be ‘‘displaced’’ through hydrogen utilization via
substitution. The practicality of vehicles utilizing hydrogen
substitution is limited by economical consideration.
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