Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine

Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Hydrogen as substitute fuel

The two petroleum crises of 1973 and 1978 brought the scientists to think seriously for alternative fuels. All the petroleum fuels are concentrated in a small group of nations and they started controlling the whole economy of the world. Therefore, efforts are made throughout the world to find and develop renewable energy sources, which will be available at all, places of the world.

The fig. shows the fraction of world energy needs supplied by different sources in the past and projections for future. The invisible decline in the proportions supplied by main fossil fuels, coal, petroleum and natural gas in future is evident. They provide us, at the most, a breathing period of some decades in which in which renewable energy sources have to be developed. The above realisation has spurred vigorous efforts all over the world to find and develop renewable energy sources to replace petroleum fuels, which will be available to all. Rapidly depleting petroleum resources, escalating oil prices and growing means of air pollution caused by petroleum fueled vehicles are some of the reasons for concerted quest for an alternative fuel for automobile. Synthetic fuels like ethanol and methanol are considered possible fuels to replace petroleum fuels in future. Alcohol, both ethanol and methanol, have been moderately successful as mixture of alcohols and gasoline. But ethanol resources are inadequate to have an impact on the probable future requirements. Methanol, owing to its potential availability as a product of coal conversion, continues to command considerable interest. But both alcohols release CO2on combustion, which because of its density will accumulate at terrestrial levels and will cause Green House Effect. Some hundreds of years ago, science fiction writer Jules predicted that water world be used one day as fuel furnishing inexhaustible source of energy. This prediction is going to be true in near future as it is inexhaustible source. DYPCOE,AKURDI Page 1

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Fig.1.1 Hydrogen as Energy Source for Mankind

1.2 Properties of H2 as automobile fuel.

Hydrogen in comparison to the other proposed alternatives seems to provide the most satisfactory answer to the problem in hand. Hydrogen has almost inexhaustible natural source in water. Also, hydrogen on combustion produces only water and NOx emission whose toxic effects are trivial in comparison to the obnoxious content of the exhaust gases of other fuels. Hydrogen has a very low density. In liquefied form, its density is one tenth that of gasoline. But it poses no ignition problem owing to the wide range of A: F ratios possible. The following table shows comparative study of gasoline and hydrogen:

Property, s Density of gas, Nm2 Density of liquid, m3 Lower calorific value, g m3 Calorific value of mixture, m3 Stoichlorometric air fuel ratio, g DYPCOE,AKURDI

Unit en kg/ kg/ k) kJ/k kJ/N kJ/N kg/k

Hydrog 0.09 70(20 k) 12.104 108.104 3200 34

Gasoline 700.750 44.104 3700 14.6 (300

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Chapter 2 Developments 2.1 Production of hydrogen
Hydrogen is not a fuel that occurs free in nature like fossil fuel. Primary energy is necessary to separate it from its original combined state. Any primary sources of energy like solar, nuclear or hydroelectric energy can be used to breakdown water into H2 and O2, through economics are sill far from attractive. The following methods are considered suitable for hydrogen production:

Fig2.1 Production of Hydrogen 1) Electrolysis of water: In this method, electrical energy is used to break H2 and O2.

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2) Thermal decomposition: In this method, heat at temperature (3000C) is used to thermally decompose of water in to H2 and O2. 3) Thermochemical Method: This method is considered as most promising it depends on complex series of interaction between the primary energy, water and some specific chemical to produce hydrogen at temperature substantially lower than thermal decomposition. The chemicals used are recyclable. Verity of compounds of iron, iodine, lithium and cadmium are used for this purpose.

4) Photobialysis: In this process, action of certain catalysts to produce H2 from water by use of directs sunlight ambient temperature. Though, it appears attractive the present efficiency of production rate is 1%.

2.2 Storage of hydrogen

Hydrogen being a very light gas poses storage problems, requiring an enormous container size. The three modes of storage for on board are discussed below. 1) Compressed gas in high-pressure cylinder: It is stored the cylinders under pressure of 140 to 210 bar but its weight density is only 1.3%. An equal amount of H2 under

pressure is about 19 times as bulky and 24 times as heavy as gasoline. This would mean that 20 gallons of petrol fuel tank might have to replace by 40 cylinders of hydrogen containing H2 at 140 bar, each cylinder weighting 55 kg but containing hardly 0.5 kg of H2 gas. Therefore, use of compressed H2 gas for automobile is out of question. The weight penalty can be reduced to some degree by using light metal alloy cylinders or by using fiber reinforced plastic. But use of high pressure H2 cylinders for cars is overruled owing to safety risk in case of accident. 2) Liquid hydrogen: However the storage of H2 in liquid form is not that bad as a tank capacity of 73 gallons is required to replace 20 gallon tank of gasoline. This size may not be unwieldy especially because the liquid hydrogen contained weighs about 20 kg only. In addition to above, for liquefying H2, the temperature is to be lowered gas to 253C (20 K). The liquification process requires 40% of the energy content in H2 gas. Also, owing to low temperatures, permanent evaporation losses cannot be avoided even with

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best insulation. The only advantage is that liquefied H2 provides fuels in most compact form. 3) Solid Metal hydrides: With the present state of art, metal hydride storage offers the most practical solution. This method depends on the property of metals & alloys to absorb H2 gas & to release the gas on increasing the temperature. Three metal hydrides have been found Suitable for the purpose. They are TiFe hydride, Mg2Nihydride and Mg Ni- Hydride. The TiFe-hydride dissociates at temperature as low as 10 C. Thus ambient air or cooling water can be used to release H2 when the Engine is running, but it has very poor storage capacity (2%) by weight. The Mg2Ni-hydride and MgNi-hydride release H2 at much higher temperatures. The

storage capacity for Mg2Ni-hydride is twice as much as the TiFe-hydride and that for MgNi-hydride is 4-times. Owing to the high bonding energy, H2 can be released from these two hydrides only by exhaust gases.

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Chapter 3 Use of H2 as fuel 3.1 Use of H2 in automobile
Two arrangements of fuel H2 supply in liquid form and in metal hydride form to the automobiles are shown in figure.

z/+Fig.3.1 P2000 Fuel Cell Vehicle

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Figure shows hydride storage system for an automobile. The heat exchanger and hydride containers actually take-up much more volume and weight than the hydride itself. At present this system is not as compact or as convenient as petrol. But it is hoped that with further development, it will become more competitive. A hydrogen car is an automobile which uses hydrogen as its primary source of power for locomotion. These cars generally use the hydrogen in one of two methods: combustion or fuel-cell conversion. In combustion, the hydrogen is "burned" in engines in fundamentally the same method as traditional gasoline cars. In fuel-cell conversion, the hydrogen is turned into electricity through fuel cells which then powers electric motors. With either method, the only byproduct from the spent hydrogen is water. A small number of prototype hydrogen cars currently exist, and a significant amount of research is underway to make the technology more viable. The common internal combustion engine usually fueled with gasoline (petrol) or diesel liquids\ can be converted to run on gaseous hydrogen. However, the most efficient use of hydrogen involves the use of fuel cells and electric motors instead of a traditional engine. Hydrogen reacts with oxygen inside the fuel cells, which produces electricity to power the motors. One primary area of research is hydrogen storage, to try to increase the range of hydrogen vehicles while reducing the weight, energy consumption, and complexity of the storage systems. Two primary methods of storage are metal hydrides and compression. Some believe that hydrogen cars will never be economically viable and that the emphasis on this technology is a diversion from the development and popularization of more efficient hybrid cars and other alternative technologies. High speed cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, submarines, and space rockets already run on hydrogen, in various forms. There is even a working toy model car that runs on solar power, using a reversible fuel cell to store energy in the form of hydrogen and oxygen gas. It can then convert the fuel back into water to release the solar energy. BMW's Clean Energy internal combustion hydrogen car has more power and is faster than hydrogen fuel cell electric cars. A limited series production of the 7 Series Saloon was announced as commencing at the end of 2006. A BMW hydrogen prototype (H2R) DYPCOE,AKURDI Page 7

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using the driveline of this model broke the speed record for hydrogen cars at 300 km/h (186 mi/h), making automotive history. Mazda has developed Wankel engines to burn hydrogen. The Wankel uses a rotary principle of operation, so the hydrogen burns in a different part of the engine from the intake. This reduces pre-detonation, a problem with hydrogen fueled piston engines. The other major car companies like Daimler, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Ford and General Motors, are investing in hydrogen fuel cells instead. VW, Nissan, and Hyundai/Kia also have fuel cell vehicle prototypes on the road. In addition, transit agencies across the globe are running prototype fuel cell buses. Fuel cell vehicles, such as the new Honda Clarity, can get up to 70 miles (110 km) on a kilogram of hydrogen.

3.2 Use of H2 for CI engines

The very high self ignition temperature of H2 makes it a difficult fuel for CI- engines .One way to overcome this difficulty is to use a small quantity of diesel oil to initiate the ignition of H2 air mixture. This has the advantage that existing diesel engines can be easily modified to operate on this system.

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3.3Methanol/Hydrogen Fuelled Automobile Engines
The use of hydrogen as an energy carrier in internal combustion engines results to superior combustion behavior and considerable environmental benefits when compared with the use of petrol gasoline. Hydrogen can be produced, amongst other methods, by decomposition of methanol, and can be manufactured industrially from domestic fuels such as peat and biomass. Research workers at the Department of Chemical Technology at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden have developed a system for powering Otto cycle internal combustion engines with a combination of methanol and Hydrogen .The use of hydrogen allows lean mixtures to be used .The hydrogen is produced by waste heat in a specially designed transportable reactor. In the engine, Liquid methanol is supplied to be carburetor and also after evaporation and superheating, to the reactor. Energy for evaporation is supplied by the engine cooling water, and for superheating by the exhaust gases. Superheating is necessary, as the decomposition of methanol to carbon monoxide and hydrogen is an endothermic process. The reactor consists of 16 parallel tubes, filled with catalyst through which the methanol passes counter-currently to the exhaust gases on the outside of the tubes. The pipes are 1.0 m longs, and the entire reactor is about 1.3m long. The catalyst in the laboratory model consists of palladium deposited on aluminum oxide. If the temperature of the methanol entering the reactor is low (below 300C), diethyl ether will be produced, On the other hand, if the temperature is too high (above about 450-500 C), methane will be formed. This is an exothermic reaction, which means that once the reaction has started, the temperature will continue to rise until equilibrium is established. For this reason, the reactor has been provided with a bypass pipe for the exhaust gases. Reducing the exhaust gas flow past the reactor reduces the total quantity of heat supplied, and so the catalyst temperature is reduced. The hydrogen produced in the reactor is fed into the fuel system between the carburetor and the engine. As the energy required for decomposition of the methanol has DYPCOE,AKURDI Page 9

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been obtained from the engine exhaust gases, the gas product mix (CO, H2) has higher chemical energy content than the liquid methanol. Effectively reactor efficiency is about 120%, supplying extra input energy to the angina as a result of hydrogen production.

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Chapter 4 H2Performance of I.C. Engine Using H2 as Fuel
The behavior of H2 is so unique and brings out so well the influence of mixture strength and effects on thermal efficiency. It was found possible to control the power of by quality governing (Regulation of H2 supply in variable compression engine); the air throttle remains full open from no load to the richest A: F mixture admissible. Whenever the running was attempted with H2-air ratio more than about 95% of that giving complete combustion, violent preignition sets in, accompanied by firing back through the carburetor. This happened even at compression ratio of 3.8 while at higher ratios, smooth running was limited to weaker mixtures. Brustall found that for engine running at 1000 R.P.M. at compression ratio 7, it was impossible to use a mixture with more H2 than 80% of that for complete combustion for the reason stated above. It was also observed that its value was 38.3%. This exceptional efficiency with H2 is due to the possibility of burning very weak mixture in which the actual amount of heat generated per m3 is small and also to the fact that there is no CO2 formed by the combustion. The only triatomic gas formed is H2O and volumetric heat of H2O is considerably lower than that of CO2. Because of low heat production, low maximum temperature and considerably small increase of volumetric heat during the cycle makes the cycle to approach the aircycle conditions.

4.1Measures of engine performance

Engine types vary greatly in a number of different ways:

energy efficiency fuel/propellant consumption (brake specific fuel consumption for shaft engines, thrust specific fuel consumption for jet engines)

power to weight ratio thrust to weight ratio Torque curves (for shaft engines) thrust lapse (jet engines) Compression ratio for piston engines, overall pressure ratio for jet engines and gas turbines

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COMPARISON WITH OTHER TYPE OF ALTERNATIVE FUEL VEHICLE:

Fig4.1 Efficiency comparison

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Chapter 5 Hydrogen vehicle

5.1Hydrogen cars
CARS THAT USE HYDROGEN IN AN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES. Hydrogen internal combustion engine cars are different from hydrogen fuel cell cars. The hydrogen internal combustion car is a slightly modified version of the traditional gasoline internal combustion engine car. These hydrogen engines burn fuel in the same manner that gasoline engines do.

CARS THAT USE HYDROGEN TO GENERATE ELECTRICITY IN FUEL CELL. While fuel cells themselves are potentially highly energy efficient, and working prototypes were made by Francis Thomas Bacon in 1959 and Roger E. Billings in the 1960s, at least four technical obstacles and other political considerations exist regarding the development and use of a fuel cell-powered hydrogen car: the cost, reliability and durability of the fuel cells; storage of hydrogen for use in fuel cells; production of hydrogen; and delivery of hydrogen to vehicles.

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Hydrogen fuel cell

Fig5.1 Hydrogen fuel cell 5.2 Internal combustion engine

5.2Hydroen Internal Combustion Engine in operation A H2 powered car being developed in Melbourne University department of Mechanical Engineering succeded in saving 40% energy over conventional petrol engine. The car is converted by Ford Cortina Wagon which carries enough fuel in 4 cylinders to travel up to 50 km at a speed of 130 km/hr. German cars are so designed that they can convert for driving either gasoline or H2 by making a few simple adjustments. Present 3-vechiles are running on road as there are very few public filling stations for liquid H2. Many more are planned for future.

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Chapter 6 Advantages and Disadvantages of H2 as a fuel 6.1Advantages of H2 as a fuel for I.C. Engine
1) Hydrogen air mixture burns nearly 10-times faster than gasoline-air mixture.

Being burning rate considerably high, it is more preferred high-speed engine. As burning rate is a very high, working approach to instantaneous combustion of an ideal Otto-cycle performance. 2) Hydrogen-ignitions limits are much wider than gasoline. So it can burn and give considerable higher. 3) Hydrogen has high self ignition temperature but very little (1/50th of gasoline) is requiring igniting it. 4) Its clean exhaust is the most attractive feature of all. As it does not produce CO2, there is no green house effect. 5) Besides being relatively clean burning renewable sources, H2 as I.C. fuel is very efficient as there are no losses associated with throttling. 6) The exhaust heat can be used to extract H2 from the hydride reducing the load on the engine. easily

6.2Disadvantages of H2 fuel
1) A disadvantage of hydrogen engines has been danger of backfire and induction ignition, which can even melt the carburetor. It is much more serious than in petrol engines because H2 requires only 1/50th of the energy of a petrol air mixture to ignite. Therefore flames traps, flash backs arresters are necessary in H2- fuel system. Additionally, crank cases must be vented to prevent accumulation of explosive mixtures. 2) Hydrogen cars will be effective for there pollution level, but it produces toxic emission of NOx. DYPCOE,AKURDI Page 15

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3) One of the major practical difficulties using H2 as car fuel is its density either in gas or liquid form. A gas of 5m3 at 138 bars is roughly equivalent to 1.5 liters of petrol as heat content is concerned. 4) The handling of H2 is more difficult and storage requires high capital and running cost particularly for liquid H2.

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Chapter 7 Conclusion
Thus from the report it can be concluded that Hydrogen can be effectively used as a fuel in internal combustion engine instead of its disadvantages because it is the need of the future. The summary of the effect the hydrogen has on the vehicle is: 1. Vehicle dimensions: Smaller sized vehicles along with less weight. 2. Pollution: No hydrocarbons CO, CO2, particulates or odours, reduced NO 3. Energy: Lower life cycle energy. 4. Cost: Lighter, hence less costly vehicle, longer engine life and less maintenance, Lower life cycle cost. 5. Safety: Equal to that of petrol engines. 6. Availability: Can be made from and/or water using any energy source.

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Chapter 8 References
1. Encyclopedias Britannica. "Encyclopedia Britannica: Internal Combustion engines". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 2. "Columbia encyclopedia: Internal combustion engine". Inventors.about.com. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 3. Laser sparks revolution in internal combustion engines Physorg.com, April 20, 2011. Accessed April 2011 4. Low Speed Engines, MAN Diesel. 5. "Ideal Otto Cycle". Grc.nasa.gov. 2008-07-11. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 6. "Improving IC Engine Efficiency". Courses.washington.edu. Retrieved 2010-0828.

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