This report summarises the mid-term progress of a project that is developing ways to run reciprocating engines on hydrogen gas blended with petrol or diesel fuel.
Report extract
This project aims to demonstrate the performance and value of highly efficient, reciprocating engines operating on renewable hydrogen. This includes the use of novel spark and compression ignition engine systems coupled with other advanced technologies. These engines are currently being developed through first and second-generation prototypes informed by more fundamental experiments and numerical modelling.
The key activities of this project are as follows.
(a) the Pressurised Flow Reactor (PFR) Programme aims to develop chemical kinetic models of hydrogen autoignition to be used in the High-Performance Computation (HPC) programme;
(b) the Constant Volume Combustion Chamber (CVCC) Programme aims obtain comprehensive optical measurements of the fuel jet and the flame, thereby forming a validation database for the HPC programme;
(c) the Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) Engine Programme aims to show definitively how hydrogen’s autoignition and combustion properties limit how aggressively engines can be designed for high efficiency;
(d) the HPC Programme will employ advanced, computational fluid dynamic simulations to provide fundamental understanding of hydrogen injection, ignition, and combustion;
(e) the Spark-ignition (SI) Engine Programme aims to demonstrate SI engine efficiency of at least 45%;
(f) the Compression-ignition (CI) Engine Programme aims to demonstrate CI engine efficiency of at least 45%;
(g) the Techno-economics Programme employs state-of-the-art techno-economic modelling to demonstrate the value of highly efficient, reciprocating engines in different systems that either generate, transport or use renewable hydrogen.
This report presents an update on the activities undertaken at the mid-point of this project. This includes our progress in programmes (a), (b), (e) and (f) above.