international journal of hydrogen energy 35 (2010) 1213412140

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A review on the technical adaptations for internal combustion

engines to operate with gas/hydrogen mixtures

M.A. Escalante Soberanis*, A.M. Fernandez

Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Centro de Investigacion en Energa, Privada Xochicalco S/N, Temixco, Morelos,
C.P. 62580, Mexico

article info abstract

Article history: The use of the hydrogen as fuel in the internal combustion engine represents an alter-
Received 3 April 2009 native use to replace the hydrocarbons fuels, which produce during the combustion
Received in revised form reaction a pollutes gases. The hydrogen is the most abundant material in the universe and
23 July 2009 during its combustion with air only produces nitrous oxides (NOx) gas, which can collect
Accepted 14 September 2009 and avoid their emission to the atmosphere. In this paper we can present the most
significant advances and developments made on the technical adaptations in the internal
combustion engines which operate with mixtures of gas/hydrogen, doing more emphasis
Keywords: in the fuel injection and cooling systems. To understand such technical adaptations, it is
Hydrogen necessary to know the chemical and physical characteristics of the hydrogen, and the
Combustion processes relate with the chemical reaction between air and hydrogen, from a point of view
Engine of the thermo-chemistry and the chemical kinetics, as well as the ratios of the mixtures in
the combustion process. Also, it mentions the advantages and disadvantages of the inte-
gration of hydrogen as a fuel, such as the pre-ignition, spontaneous ignition, knocking and
backfire, also the advances in the research to avoid these phenomena during the
combustion. Finally, it describes the best conditions of the ratio-mixtures in the internal
combustion engines when they are fed with hydrogen. Also, it describes the perspectives
and the futures fields on the future investigation.
Crown Copyright 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu.
All rights reserved.

1. Introduction combustion has an important advantage over the fuel cells

In the last years, the late reports on the environmental
contamination and the exhaustion of the resources show the
levels have been increased due of intensive use of the internal
combustion engines, and for this reason it is looking for
a more efficient and clean sources to produce movement and
electric power. Hydrogen can be part from an integral and
efficient solution for this type of problems. The fuel cells are
a promising alternative in terms of power production,
however these systems it is going be a reality for the next 20
years when the mass production start. The hydrogen
systems, it is possible to use the infrastructure that exists to
adapt the internal combustion engines to use hydrogen as
a fuel, and in this manner reduce of emissions. This is the way
to introduce in the market this type of conversion of engines
in short term. The use of the hydrogen as a fuel in the engines
has been studied by different authors [13] in the last decade
with several degrees of success. However, these reports are
not necessarily consistent among several researchers. The
tendency in this type of reports is focused in results obtained
for specific engines under very narrow operation conditions,
and also made emphasis in the emissions and considerations

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 52 777 156 7430.

E-mail address: maes@cie.unam.mx (M.A. Escalante Soberanis).
0360-3199/$ see front matter Crown Copyright 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.09.070
 international journal of hydrogen energy 35 (2010) 1213412140 12135

of efficiency [1]. It should be taken into account what has been the time. In general, the flame in the internal combustion
achieved in this field, focused in the attractive features as in engine is instable [6].
the limitations associate with the disadvantages that are
needed to overcome the hydrogen broadly acceptable as a fuel 2.2. Composition of the air
for engines. It is also necessary to indicate the practical steps
to incorporate the different experimental condition in the For the purposes of the present work we will consider that the
existent commercial engines to operate with hydrogen gas. air is composed of 21% Vol. Oxygen and 79% Vol. Nitrogen
White et al. [4] were made a technical revision of the [68]. The molecular weight of the air is obtained by the
internal combustion engines operate with hydrogen; their following equation:
work was emphasis in the use of hydrogen/gas mixtures with
light and heavy load in order to reduce the bad combustion 1X
M ni Mi (1)
n i
engines. Also, they report the effect of variation in the
concentration of the mixture hydrogen/air versus the emis- the molecular weight of the air is considered as of 28.96
sions of NOx. g/g-mol.
Akansu et al. [5] also carried out a technical revision on
natural gas/hydrogen mixtures. They reported the level of 2.3. Stoichiometric combustion
the pollutants emissions, such as hydrocarbons without
burning and nitrogen oxides when internal combustion The stoichiometric combustion of the octane molecule can
engines operate with natural gas and adding hydrogen. represent by the following equation,
Also, they reported the efficiencies and powers of the
engine. C8 H18 12:5O2 3:773N2 8CO2 9H2 O 47:16N2 (2)

However, air/fuel mixtures with different amount of air can

2. Theoretical bases
2.1. Characteristics of the flame
The flame is generally classified according to certain charac-
teristics. The first of them is related with its composition at
which the reactants go to the reaction area. If the fuel and the
oxidizer mix properly it is called pre-mixture flame. If the
reactants are not pre-mixture and should they be mixed in the
place where the reaction occurs, the flame is designated as
diffusion, because the mixture comes from a diffusion
process. The second type of classification of the flame refers to
the characteristics of the gas flow through the reaction area:
Laminate or turbulent. In the laminate flame the transport
occurs due to molecular processes, in other words at low
Reynolds numbers, which are defined as the relationship
between the inertial and viscous forces. In the turbulent
flame, the transport and the mixture of the gas flow cause by
the relative macroscopic movement of fluid, in others terms
high Reynolds numbers. A third classification area refers to
stability of flame. The main characteristic that distinguishes it
is the structure and the movement of the flame change with
make combustion. With excess of air, during the combustion,
the products are unaffected. With a smaller amount of the air,
in other word a rich mixture in fuel, there is not enough
oxygen to oxidize all the carbon and hydrogen into carbon
dioxide and water, and the result products are mixtures of
dioxide of carbon and water with monoxide carbon and
hydrogen.
Due that the composition of the combustion products is
different when they are light or heavy mixtures and that
stoichiometric ratio of air/fuel depends of the composition of
the fuel, it is necessary to define a parameter call equivalence
ratio f that it is to relate of the stoichiometric ratio of air/fuel
with the actual ratio air/fuel [6]:
F=Aactual
f (3)
F=As
The inverse value of f is call inverse relative ratio l. At low
values of f, it is considered as of a slight mixture, meanwhile
at high values of f it is considered as rich mixture, and equal
to 1 it is a stoichiometric mixture. In general, the ultra-light
loads are whose equivalence ratio is smaller at 0.5. The
flammability limits are considering the values of the mixture
ratios of air/fuel that the combustion occurs, and they express
in percentage values.

Table 1 Some physical properties for hydrogen and others fuels under stequimetric conditions [9].
Properties Hydrogen Methanol Methane Propane Gasoline Unit

Flammability limits 475 736 515 2.59.3 1.07.6 Vol. %

Minimum ignition energy. 0.02 0.29 0.25 0.24 mJ

Flame temperature 2045 1875 2200 C

Auto ignition temperature 585 385 540 510 230500 C
Maximum velocity 3.46 0.43 0.47 m/s
of flame
Explosion range 1365 6.313.5 1.13.3 Vol. %
Diffusion coefficient 0.61 0.16 0.20 0.10 0.05 103 m2/s
12136 international journal of hydrogen energy 35 (2010) 1213412140
Table 1 shows the flammability limits for hydrogen and
some more fuels, and also other properties. For example, the
flammability limits of the gasoline in the air are in
a percentage range of 1.07.6% Vol., but in the equivalence
ratio it is 0.74 [4,9].
2.4. Combustion of mixtures air/hydrogen
One of the principal advantages that hydrogen has a fuel is the
wide flammability limits (see Table 1). These wide limits allow
that the combustion occurs with different equivalence ratios,
in particular with slight mixtures, which makes relatively easy
to operate an engine with hydrogen.
An internal combustion engine works better when it is fed
with hydrogen and slight load; under these conditions the
final combustion temperature is smaller, reducing the
polluting gases emissions. However, there is a limit value that
indicates how slight it can be a mixture and it became by the
reduction in the outlet power and the heat capacity of the
mixture.
The hydrogen flames in air or oxygen shows a very small
radiation that it is possible to observe due the presence of
impurities in the mixtures.
2.5. Reaction of combustion
The theoretical combustion reaction of hydrogen in air is
given by the following chemical equation:
2H2 O2 3:76N2 /2H2 O 3:76N2 (4)
This implies a relationship stequimetric air/combustible of
34:1. For this relationship, the fraction of volume of hydrogen
that occupies the combustion camera is of approximately
30%, bigger than that of the gasoline that occupies 1% [11,29].
2.6. Phenomena of abnormal combustion
There are three types of abnormal combustion: (i) abnormal
elevation of the pressure, (ii) pre-ignition in the combustion
chamber and a sequential advance of the pre-ignition and
backfire in the admission gauge, (iii) occasional backfire with
a slight mixtures of air/hydrogen. The backfire has been the
most important obstacle in the development of the hydrogen
engines, but it occurs more or less often in the gasoline
engines. The backfire occurs when some amount of airfuel
load ignited in the cycle entrance, starting the combustion
reaction at the intake manifold. Also occurs when the mixture
are in contact with some thermal source with the enough
energy to ignite the mixture during the period in which the
valve is open. The combustion is more difficult of control
[10,13].
The pre-ignite process occurs when a fresh load of air/
hydrogen mixture are present the cylinder and combustion
reaction start by sources of heat instead of the spark. If the
process is more frequent, the backfire appears in the intake
manifold.
The auto ignition occurs when the non-burn mixture
enters in contact with hot points of the chamber engine, either
before or after the spark, producing another phenomenon
called knocking. This phenomenon consists on the excessive
vibration of the engines parts that are in direct contact with
the combustion chamber. The knock involve a bigger heat
transfer to the walls of the combustion chamber, an excessive
increase of the pressure in the cylinder, high temperatures
and the increment of the emissions, affecting the perfor-
mance of the engine [12,27].
3. Injection system
It is known that gasoline electronic injectors which have been
developed are not appropriated for hydrogen; this is because
of the large amounts of fuel that must be injected in a HICE
(Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine), due to low energy
density of hydrogen. Electronic injectors have been designed
for fuels such as natural gas and, specifically, for hydrogen.
Non-lubricants properties of hydrogen could harm the
surface of a conventional injector in only few minutes. For this
reason, certain adaptations to some parts of the injection
system that are in full contact with the fuel are required. As is
pointed in literature [2], the high pressure of hydrogen storage
can lead to fuel leakage in a conventional injector, so, there is
a need for using of high-pressure injectors.
However, there are already, in the market, compressed
natural gas (CNG) electronic injectors which have been proved
to be successful using hydrogen as a flow fluid, allowing the
use of this fuel as an additive in a hybrid engine or as
a substitute on CNG.
3.1. Injectors review
Test results about eight variants of pulse width modulated
electronic fuel injectors feed with pure hydrogen were
reported. Such injectors were subjected to three different
speed programs, distributed in two phases of experiments [3].
Five injectors gave the best results, divided in two types: The
first type is a side fed injector whose fuel metering system
employs a ball on seat configuration, where armature move-
ment causes a drive pin to act against a spring loaded ball and
in so doing opens a flow orifice; the second type of injector is
a prototype injector which employs a top feed and bottom exit
design, and the fuel metering system uses a spring loaded
armature mounted to a reed which, when energized, uncovers
a flow annulus. The first type of injector had four variants,
which consisted in adding different materials to the drive pin
and the seats, increasing hardness and decreasing friction
coefficients in such parts. The added materials are shown in
Table 2. The second type of injector showed a favorable
behavior, without any failure, during all tests, despite of the
fact that no added material is mentioned.
Lee and Kim [2] introduced an engine fueled with gaseous
hydrogen by dual injection, with the advantage of combine
high efficiency of an external mixture engine and high power
output of a direct injection engine. For this purpose, a high
pressure hydrogen injector of the ball-valve type actuated by
a solenoid was developed, which would be situated in the
cylinder and connected to an admission injector, who is in
charge of preparing the external mixture. The high-pressure
injector was developed for keeping gas tightness against high-
pressure hydrogen gas. Its driving parts which are in contact
 international journal of hydrogen energy 35 (2010) 1213412140
Table 2 Lubricant materials added to the drive pin and
seats of the first type of injectors.
Material Friction Hardness Thickness
coefficient
Dry film w0.06 w1215 GPa 1215 mm
lubricant containing
the solid lubricants;
molybdenum disulfide,
graphite and hexagonal
boron nitride.
AHCh coating. w0.140.16 24 mm heat transfer of combustion gas to the walls of the combustion
AHCh and a carbon 0.10
enriched top layer.
MeloniteTM w0.3 w5560HRc
with the gas must not wear out by the non-lubricant property
of hydrogen. Both injectors must be capable of control the
amount of fuel injected under conditions of high engine
speed. The solenoid actuator, compared with a hydraulic one,
can easily control the parameters of injection and has a faster
response under high engine speed conditions. Due to high-
pressure hydrogen and the spring tension, the principle of
differential pressure is used to open and close the ball-valve,
closing it in an automatic way. On the other hand, the valve is
always apt to be fitted with the valve seat, because it has
a spherical geometric surface; moreover, the rotation of the
ball-valve during operation has an effect to polish the valve
seat, leading to better gas tightness.
In the Institute of Technology, in Beijing, a conversion of
a four cylinder spark ignition internal combustion engine
was made, in order to be fueled with hydrogen [13]. One of
the most important parts of the work consisted in the
modification and calibration of eight injectors from Land-
irenzo (two for each cylinder), which are originally designed
to inject CNG. In the simulation of injection process, it was
found that, in order to keep stability of residual hydrogen
close to the intake port, the delay of the process should not
go beyond 500  CA.
4. Cooling system
The heat transfer in internal combustion engines has been
studied since the point of view of several authors. The
research made about cooling losses in HICE takes the role as
a support in the decision of the best techniques and strategies
to take in order to cooling an engine and to avoid excessive
heating. Such losses have been studied and reported in liter-
ature [1417]. The decline of such losses allows having better
control over the temperature of the parts of the engine. The
wide range of flammability and the low energy of auto ignition
of hydrogen require a better cooling system, more precise,
because any hot spot can detonate ultra lean mixtures of this
fuel.
Researches made in Hokkaido University, in Japan, about
cooling losses, have contributed with techniques to avoid
excessive heating, reducing cooling losses and increase
thermal efficiency at the same time. In particular, tests have
been made with stratified charge, which consists in
12137
introducing a lean charge of hydrogen and air previously
mixed in the chamber and adding later hydrogen directly
injected and ignited with a discharge [14,15].
Injection of stratified charge has been proposed as a tech-
nique to reduce cooling losses. However, a reduction of these
losses doesnt always improve thermal efficiency due to
simultaneous increasing of heat losses in the exhaust [14].
Delaying in spark time can decrease the cooling losses,
decreasing the maximum temperature of combustion. A
direct injection stratified charge of a lean mixture reduces
chamber and increases the fraction of apparent heat release
in hydrogen combustion.
Cooling an engine means losing of energy loss that could be
used to generate more power for movement. Reducing such
losses is equally important that cooling itself. Studies of
Shudo are focused to describe strategies that could reduce
cooling losses, that is, take the most energy of combustion in
order to cooling less.
There is simulation and experimental work on cylinder
heat transfer that has been made in order to reduce excessive
temperatures in the cylinder head in diesel engines [24]. These
kinds of studies are relevant when hydrogen combustion is
carried out, due to high flame velocity and rapid rise of
temperature level. For these reasons it is necessary to develop
new and better cooling techniques, like fluid channels around
the cylinder and improvement of the heat transfer from the
combustion chamber to the environment.
4.1. Liquid hydrogen
The use of liquid hydrogen has been studied by several
authors in literature [4]. In engines that use this fuel, it stores
in a liquid state, but is injected in a gaseous state. For this
reason, a cryogenic store capable to maintain the hydrogen in
liquid state is required, at a temperature of 20 K, approxi-
mately [18]. Its primary benefit is the high energy density of
the fuel, around 120 MJ/kg [9], superior value to that of gaso-
line. Another advantage refers to the cooling of the engine, as
of the low temperature on injection, despite of being already
in gaseous state, may inhibit the excessive rise of temperature
in specific regions of the engine, such as the spark plug,
injectors and some regions of the combustion chamber. The
main problems of this fuel are focused on storage, the tech-
nology for the process of cooling at cryogenic temperature and
thermal isolation, being, at this day, very expensive, needing
economical and environmental analysis [28].
5. Gas/hydrogen mixtures
There are different ways to use hydrogen as a fuel; it can be
used as an additive in a hydrocarbon mixture, or as an only
fuel, in the presence of air. As a first commercial introduction
of hydrogen as a fuel for engines, it can be used in hydro-
carbon mixtures, at low concentrations, requiring minimal
adaptations in internal combustion engines [1927].
12138 international journal of hydrogen energy 35 (2010) 1213412140
5.1. Hydrogen and CNG
In the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, an
experimental study was made recently, adapting a spark
ignition engine, originally fueled with natural gas (NG), to be
fueled with mixtures NG/hydrogen [19]. The engine was
a three cylinder of 2.7 l and a compression ratio of 11:1.
Thermocouples were situated in the intake manifold, cooling
system and in the exhaust. Results of emissions, efficiency
and power output, working, with two types of mixture
composition, were compared: A mixture of with only NG
(99.5% Vol. methane), and a mixture with 29% Vol. hydrogen
volume. Spark timing were in the range 525  CA before top
dead center (BTDC).
In such work, unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions of
two types of mixtures were shown. It was observed that
adding hydrogen to NG, hydrocarbon emissions are well
reduced. When air excess ratio l is in the range of 1.61.8,
hydrocarbon emissions in air/NG rise in an important
amount, while for hydrogen/NG mixtures, this rise occurs in
the range of 1.82.0. This means that hydrogen allows working
with leaner mixtures, without having sudden rises of UHC
emissions. Emissions of nitric oxides with both types of
mixtures were observed. Presence of hydrogen leads to
greater flame velocities and temperatures, increasing the
emissions of nitric oxides. However, when excess air ratio is
over than 1.5, emissions below 5 ppm can be obtained, rep-
resenting and advantage when working with lean mixtures of
hydrogen. With values of l over 1.5 in hydrogen/NG mixtures,
it can be observed efficiencies over 30% and power outputs
over 20 kW, both values greater than those of NG mixtures.
Moreover, in the Engineering Faculty of the Eciyes
University, in Turkey, a technical review about hydrogen/CNG
mixtures in spark ignition internal combustion engines at
different concentrations and spark timings were made [5].
Akansu et al. reported a maximum efficiency at 30  CA BTDC,
being of almost 50%, with an equivalence ratio f of 0.8 and
40% Vol. of hydrogen in the mixture. In terms of exhaust
gases, emissions of nitric oxides and UHC were reported in
two cases: with catalytic converter and without it. For the
nitric oxides emissions, the amounts emitted with NG and
hydrogen/NG mixtures are comparable in some ignition
timings when the catalytic converter technique is applied;
however, it is shown that at 22  CA BTDC, the production of
this emissions reduces considerably with the hydrogen/NG
emissions. For UHC, the levels of the hydrogen/NG mixtures
are always below of that of NG mixtures, due to the reduction
of consumption of methane.
5.2. Hydrogen and diesel
In terms of compression ignition engines, adaptations also
have been made in order to work with hydrogen as a fuel in
the Diesel cycle, such as the case of the Anna University, in
India [20]. In the paper published by the authors, they reported
the use of a single cylinder compression ignition engine, with
direct injection. Diesel fuel works as a source of ignition.
Hydrogen supply takes place in two ways until reach the
1500 rpm, with a power output of 3.78 kW: by carburetion and
timing port injection (TPI). It can be observed that the major
efficiency (27.5%) is reached with the diesel/hydrogen
mixture, using TPI technique. In terms of emissions, nitric
oxides have an important role when hydrogen is introduced in
the mixture, because authors observed higher levels at
2500 rpm, with a brake power output of 4 kW, while emissions
of UHC reduced to approximately 25% of the air/diesel
mixtures emissions. Carbon monoxide emissions also were
reduced in the same percentage of the UHC.
Experimental studies, by optical measures, have been
carried out on penetration length of the fuel in diesel engines
in inert atmospheres, using nitrogen as a work fluid, where
the importance of the nozzles characteristics and injection
pressure and temperature are emphasized [23]. Martinez-
Martinez et al. suggest a correlation which relates liquid
penetration length with nozzle diameter, working fluid
density, pressure and starting time of injection. This type of
work results from special interest when the compression
ignition engine is fueled with hydrogen, in order to fulfill
a homogeneous mixture, obtaining a better combustion.
Masood et al. [25,26] made experimental and computa-
tional work on a hydrogen diesel dual fuel engine, with
hydrogen presence from 10 to 80% Vol. It was noticed that
with the increase of hydrogen load the pressure increases at
high compression ratios due to the high flammability and
rate of combustion of hydrogen. Moreover, hydrogen has
a major flame velocity at stoichiometric conditions, which
makes the engine getting closer to the thermodynamically
ideal engine.
5.3. Hydrogen and air
In the Madras Institute of Technology, a comparison study
between gasoline and hydrogen as fuels was made [21]. For
this purpose, a single cylinder spark ignition engine was
adapted to be fueled with hydrogen by injection in the intake
manifold. The results of UHC emissions showed that, using
hydrogen as a fuel, the levels were near zero, while with
gasoline it would maintain over the 2500 rpm, at different
requirements of power output. The specific fuel consumption,
working with hydrogen, is less then the half than that of
gasoline, due to the low energy density of hydrogen. For the
case of nitric oxides emissions, it was reported higher levels in
hydrogen combustion. The emissions of the first mixture were
about 8000 ppm at an equivalence ratio of 0.85, while for
gasoline it was reported 2000 ppm at an equivalence ratio of
1.03, approximately. The minimum ignition energy and the
wide range of flammability of hydrogen allow the presence of
combustion at lower equivalence ratios than those with
gasoline, and it can obtain a higher power at specific equiva-
lence ratios. The higher power output of the engine, running
with hydrogen, was about 80% of the power reached with
gasoline. Volumetric efficiency was plotted versus power
output and thermal efficiency versus equivalence ratio. In the
first case, a higher volumetric efficiency, compared with that
of gasoline, with a power output between 2 and 7 kW, was
observed. In the case of thermal efficiency, it was reached
a maximum of about 27%, at different speeds, over that with
gasoline which is about 25%.
 international journal of hydrogen energy 35 (2010) 1213412140
In a technical center of the company Toyota, in Belgium, an
experimental research about combustion characteristics and
a spark ignition engine performance, with a for stroke single
cylinder, was made [22]. Several types of tests were carried
out, but those which concern to injection timing were: (1)
Hydrogen injection during intake stroke (300  CA BTDC), and
(2) hydrogen injection during compression stroke (130  CA
BTDC).
Injection during intake stroke inhibits backfire, but thermal
efficiency and power output are limited by knocking and
decrease of volumetric efficiency. Hydrogen injection during
compression stroke prevents knocking, increases thermal
efficiency and maximizes the power output. During these
tests, volumetric efficiencies similar to those of Hari Ganesh
were observed. However, it was observed that, retarding
injection timing during compression stroke, can lead to
a thermal efficiency of about 38.9%, reducing at the same time
emissions of nitric oxides.
Moreover, in Riverside, University of California, a research
about exhaust gas recirculation technique in a hydrogen
engine at different fuel flows was carried out [11]. This tech-
nique was shown as an effective method to reduce emissions
of nitric oxides to less than 10 ppm, getting a better power
output than that with lean mixtures (f< 0.45, i.e., 14% Vol. or
less of hydrogen), with thermodynamic efficiencies near 31%.
For this purpose, a four cylinder of 2 l each, Ford engine was
adapted, connecting a line which conduced exhaust gases
back to the intake air manifold. Fuel flows from 0.78 to 1.63 kg/
h, i.e., f from 0.35 to 1.02, and introducing exhaust gases in
a phased manner, substituting air. These tests were carried
out in six experiments at an engine speed of 1500 rpm.
6. Conclusions
Use of hydrogen in internal combustion engines may be part
of an integral solution to problem of depletion of fossil fuels
and pollution of the environment. Today, the infrastructure
and technological advances in matters of engines can be
useful in the insertion of hydrogen as a fuel.
Emissions of air/hydrogen mixtures consist mainly in
carbon dioxide and nitric oxides. In the case of NOx, higher
levels of emissions can be observed, due to the higher
temperature and flame velocity of hydrogen compared with
other fuels, like gasoline. Emissions of UHC are product of
lubricant oil heating and the use of oil derivatives for engine
cooling.
Thermal efficiency of an engine fueled with hydrogen can
overcome to that achieved with a gasoline engine (38.9% with
hydrogen and 25% with gasoline). The power output of an
engine fueled with hydrogen has reached, in laboratory tests,
an 80% of that reached by a gasoline engine.
Hydrogen combustion at light load, reducing injection time
and delaying the spark, can reduce emissions of NOx and
avoid abnormal phenomena of combustion. It is recom-
mended, in particular for research in spark ignition engines, to
design experiments with air/hydrogen mixtures in the range
of equivalence ratio from 0.3 to 0.9, using compression rela-
tions over 12:1, with exhaust gas recirculation techniques,
reduction in injection time and retarding of spark timing. For
12139
compression ignition engines it is recommended to increase
compression relations with exhaust gas recirculation and,
mainly, to use an inductor of combustion (diesel, for example)
and introduce a hydrogen mixture until reach the required
level of power output. It is recommended to begin the
substitution of hydrocarbons with a strong research on
compression ignition engines fueled with hydrogen and
diesel, working at compression ratios above 15:1, natural gas
injectors, and variable load of hydrogen, then start from light
loads until reach minimum levels of hydrocarbon, using
a combustion initiator.
In engine design matters, the main adaptations recom-
mended for the use of hydrogen as a fuel, concern on the next
three points:
 Change of injectors. Higher volume capacity of injection is
needed. A low hydrogen density makes larger volumes of
fuel that need to be injected in a short time. Research works
on this issue have demonstrated that natural gas injectors
can be modified to work with hydrogen as a fuel.
 Better control of temperature. Due to high burning velocity of
hydrogen, in comparison with gasoline and diesel, makes
hydrogen engines need new and better temperature control
techniques, such as cooling the surroundings of the nozzles,
spark plugs and head cylinders.
 Mixtures. Literature recommends using hydrogen combus-
tion, in the presence of hydrocarbons, as a first stage of
hydrogen introduction as a fuel. Light mixtures (about 5
10% Vol. of the mixture) of hydrogen can be the initial point
for a progressive and clean substitution of conventional
fuels.
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