Hydrogen-Diesel IC Engine
Akash Patela, Navjot Singhb
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 H2 for
fuel in IC engine. One approach is to build H2 combustion engine.
However, this is difficult due to explosive nature of H2 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 H2 as
fuel with diesel in diesel engine. Various researches have shown that
adding H2 lead to reduction in unburnt fuel, soot particles. Increasing
H2 fraction leads to decrease in indicated thermal efficiency. When H2
fraction is increased above a fraction about 20%, there is rapid
increase in NOx emissions. Also increasing H2 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
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
a. ID No: 11640110, B Tech, Mechanical Department, IIT Bhilai,
b. ID No: 11640580, B Tech, Mechanical Department, IIT Bhilai
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, NOx, etc.
M Deb et al showed that NOx emission dramatically increased with
increasing load and hydrogen energy content, respectively.
Conversely, HC and CO2 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 NOx 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 CO2 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 H2 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 CO2 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 H2 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 . H2 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-H2 combination. The
toroidal re-entrant combustion chamber (TRCC) is present in engine
01. Hydrogen cylinder 05. Wet type flame trap
02. Rotameter 06. Dry flame arrester
03. Gas flow meter 07. Diesel Engine
04. Inline flame trap 08. Eddy current dynamo meter 12. Air box
Fig. 1. Experimental setup for dual fuel arrangement of current investigation. [11]
Assumption for this calculation was considering cylinder gas to
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).
𝛾 𝛾
𝑄𝑎𝑝𝑝 = ( ) 𝑝. 𝑑𝑣 + ( ) 𝑣. 𝑑𝑣 + 𝑄𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 (1)
𝛾−1 𝛾−1
𝑄𝑎𝑝𝑝 - Apparent heat release rate (J)
𝛾 - Ratio of specific heats Cp/ (Cp -𝑅̅ )
𝑅̅ - Gas constant in (J/kmole K)
Cp - Specific heat at constant pressure(J/kmole K)
𝑣- Instantaneous volume of the cylinder (m3)
𝑝 - Cylinder pressure (bar)
𝑄𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 - Heat transfer to the wall (J)
09. PC interfaced to engine 13. Proximity sensor
10. Exhaust gas analyzer 14. Diesel tank
11. Smoke meter 15.Biodiesel tank
behave as an ideal gas (air) with specific heats being dependent on
temperature. The specific heat was found using the equation (2).

1.3376𝑇 3.29421𝑇 2 −1.91142𝑇 3 1. Properties of various fuels. [11]

𝐶𝑝 = [3.6359 − + −
1000 1 × 106 1 × 109
4 S.No. Properties Diesel BHO BCO ASTM standard
0.275462𝑇
+ ]𝑅
1 × 1012
1 Viscosity (cSt at 40C) 4.59 5.6 5.00 ASTM D445
(2)
2 Flash point (C) 65 163 167 ASTM D93
D3278 - 96
for T < 1000 K. 3 Calorific Value (kJ/kg) 45000 36010 39648 ASTM D5865
4 Density (kg/m3 at 15 C) 830 890 885 ASTM D4052
1.338056𝑇 0.488256𝑇 2 0.0855475𝑇 3 5 Cetane Number 45-55 40-42 45 ASTM D613
𝐶𝑝 = [3.04473 − + −
1000 1 × 106 1 × 109
4
0.00570127𝑇 6 Cloud Point (C) 15 - 7 ASTM D2500
+ ]𝑅
1 × 1012
7 Pour Point (C) 1 - 4 ASTM D97

8 Carbon Residue (%) 0.1 - 0.42 ASTM D4530

(3)
9 Type of oil Fossil Non Non -
fuel edible edible
for T < 1000 K.
Heat transferred to the wall was determined with the Hohenberg
equation (4) and assuming the wall temperature to be 723 K .
2. Properties of H2 [11]

𝑄𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 = ℎ × 𝐴 × [𝑇𝑔 − 𝑇𝑤 ] (4) S. No. Properties

1 Chemical composition H2

2 Auto ignition temperature(K) 858

0.8
ℎ = 𝐶1 𝑉 −0.06 𝑝0.08 𝑇 −0.4 (𝑉𝑝 + 𝐶2 ) (5)
3 Minimum ignition energy (mJ) 0.02
4 Flammability limits (% volume in air) 4-75
5 Stoichiometric air fuel ratio on mass basis 34.3
h - Heat transfer coefficient in W/m2 K .

6 Density at 15 C and 1 bar pressure 0.0838

C1 & C2 - Constants, 130 & 1.4. 7 Net heating value (MJ/kg) 119.93

V - Cylinder volume in m3 8 Flame velocity (cm/s) 265-325

9 Octane number 130

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

Fig. 2 – DDC 2.5L EGR/H2 flow diagram. [12]

2.3 For Diesel Generator Jet type Single stream

Number of holes 1
Andre Morais performed dual fuel experiments on a diesel generator.
A diesel power generator of 50 kW of nominal power was used in the
experiments. A four-cylinder, direct injection, naturally aspirated A hydrogen injection system was modified for the engine intake
diesel engine is used as power generator. A mechanical fuel pump and system (Fig. 3). To install the injection pipes four holes were drilled
four injectors are used in direct fuel injection system of engine. The in the intake manifold, located at a distance of 130 mm from the
original diesel oil injection system was used for the tests with intake valve and with inclination of 45 to the intake air main
hydrogen. stream. The injection system developed originally for using in
natural gas engines was used. Table 4 shows the characteristics of
4. Injector Properties [10] the hydrogen injectors. The hydrogen injection system location
does not interfere with the intake system in case of engine
Parameter Value operation with diesel oil only. To verify that the hydrogen
Total length 47 mm
injection system provides uniform distribution to all cylinders,
Total mass 0.035 kg
preliminary tests were performed with one operating injector at a
Valve body material Stainless steel
time, while the other three injectors were disabled. The injected
Solenoid valve material Copper
hydrogen mass flow rate was same for all injectors at a common
Operation temperature 40 Ce130 C
operating condition. Since the fuel was multiport injected, the fuel
Minimum voltage 6V
Nominal voltage 12 V
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 H2 injection system positioning [10]
Fig. 3(b) H2 injectors installed in the intake manifold [10]
Fig. 3 (c) H2 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]
This 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
Fig.6 Performance map of indicated thermal efficiency under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MP [14]
Fig.7 Equivalence map of indicated thermal efficiency under IMEP of 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9 MP [14]
efficiency:
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,
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.
3.5 NOx emissions:
Conversion of nitrogen and oxygen to NOx occurs when the
temperature in the combustion chamber is very high. NOx is collective
term used to refer to nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). NOx
emissions form in the high-temperature burned gas region, which is
Fig. 8. Variation in the NOx emission with HFFR and BP [11]
The possible reason may be higher HRR and high flame front speed of
hydrogen. Biodiesel has lower NOx than mineral diesel due to fact that
it has inferior combustion compared due mineral diesel. H2 burns at
higher temperature and very rapidly. The fast burning of hydrogen
However, as hydrogen fraction exceeds around 80% regardless of
engine speed conditions, abnormal combustion takes place, thus
limiting fraction of hydrogen.
3.4 Gaseous emissions- other gaseous emissions
measurements with constant injection timing:
CO2 emission decreases with increase in hydrogen fraction as
expected. In general with 15% hydrogen substitution, CO2 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.
non-uniform, and formation rates are highest in the close to
stoichiometric regions Fig. 8 depicts the effect of HFFR and BP on the
changes in the engine out NOx emissions of a DF engine. Higher level
of tail pipe NOx was observed with the injected fuels and also it
increased with the increase in H2 induction at all loads.
decreases ID (ignition delay) and CD (combustion duration) which
resulted in higher HRR and peak pressure (PP) and engine out NOx
emission. Similar results can be observed in the literature. The DF
operation showed about 8-9% higher NOx 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 NOx were
observed to increase but only when the energy contribution from H2
was increased above the 10% level. This increase in NOx emissions
was attributed to H2-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 H2 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 H2 reduces CO2 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 CO2 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.
port fuel injection in a diesel engine. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2014;
39(32):18480-9
[9] Wu HW, Wu ZY . Investigation on combustion characteristics and
emissions of diesel/hydrogen mixtures by using energy-share method
in a diesel engine Appl Therm Eng, 42 (Suppl. C) (2012), 154-162.
[10] Morais AM, Justino MAM, Valente OS, Hanriot SM, Sodre JR.
Hydrogen impacts on performance and CO2 emissions from a diesel
power generator Int J Hydrogen Energy, 38 (16) (2013), 6857-6864
[11] Khandal SV, Banapurmath NR, Gaitonde VN. Effect of hydrogen
fuel flow rate, fuel injection timing and exhaust gas recirculation on
the performance of dual fuel engine powered with renewable fuels.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2018, 82(1):1457-1488
[12] Lilik GK, Zhang H, Herreros JM, Haworth DC, Boehman AL.
Hydrogen assisted diesel combustion. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2010;
35(9):4382-98
.
[13] Dimitriou P, Kumar M, Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y. Combustion and
emission characteristics of a hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel engine. Int J
Hydrogen Energy 2018; 43(29): 13605-17.
[14] Tsujimura T, Suzuki Y. The utilization of hydrogen in
hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engine. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2017;
42(19):14019-29
[15] Talibi M, Hellier P, Ladommatos N. The effect of varying EGR and
intake air boost on hydrogen-diesel co-combustion in CI engines. Int J
Hydrogen Energy 2017; 42(9):6369-83

References:
[1] 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.

[2] Fukuma T, Fujita T, Pichainarong P, Furuhama S. Hydrogen

combustion study in direct injection hot surface ignition engine. SAE
Paper 1986.

[3] Roy MM, Tomita E, Kawahara N, Harada Y, Sakane A. Performance

and emission comparison of a supercharged dual-fuel engine fueled
by producer gases with varyinghydrogen content. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2009; 34(18):7811-22

[4] Berckmuller M, Rottengneber H, Eder A. Potentials of a charged

SI-hydrogen engine. SAE Pap; 2003. 01-3210.

[5] Verhelst S, Sierens R, Verstraeten S. Development of a simulation

code for hydrogen fuelled si engines. ASME; 2006.

[6] Nieminen J, D’Souza N, Dincer I. Comparative combustion

characteristics of gasoline and hydrogen fuelled ices. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2010; 35(10):5114-23.

[7] Deb M, Sastry GRK, Bose PK, Banerjee R. An experimental study on

combustion, performance and emission analysis of a single cylinder,
4-stroke DI-diesel engine using hydrogen in dual fuel mode of
operation. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2015; 40(27):8586-98

[8] Sandalci T, Karagoz Y. Experimental investigation of the

combustion characteristics, emissions and performance of hydrogen