i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

Available at www.sciencedirect.com

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he

Conversion of a gasoline engine-generator set to a bi-fuel

(hydrogen/gasoline) electronic fuel-injected power unit
D. Sainz a, P.M. Dieguez a, J.C. Urroz a, C. Sopena a,1, E. Guelbenzu b, A. Perez-Ezcurdia a,
M. Benito-Amurrio a, S. Marcelino-Sadaba a, G. Arzamendi a, L.M. Ganda a,*
a

Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales y de Telecomunicacion, Universidad Publica de Navarra, Campus de Arrosada,
E-31006 Pamplona, Spain
b
Acciona Energa, Avenida Ciudad de la Innovacion no 5, E-31621 Sarriguren, Navarra, Spain

article info

abstract

Article history:

The modifications performed to convert a gasoline carbureted engine-generator set to a bi-

Received 17 May 2011

fuel (hydrogen/gasoline) electronic fuel-injected power unit are described. Main changes

Received in revised form

affected the gasoline and gas injectors, the injector seats on the existing inlet manifold,

21 July 2011

camshaft and crankshaft wheels with their corresponding Hall sensors, throttle position

Accepted 25 July 2011

and oil temperature sensors as well as the electronic management unit. When working on

Available online 8 September 2011

gasoline, the engine-generator set was able to provide up to 8 kW of continuous electric

power (10 kW peak power), whereas working on hydrogen it provided up to 5 kW of electric

Keywords:

power at an engine speed of 3000 rpm. The air-to-fuel equivalence ratio (l) was adjusted to

Bi-fuel engine-generator

stoichiometric (l 1) for gasoline. In contrast, when using hydrogen the engine worked

Hydrogen-fueled electric generator

ultra-lean (l 3) in the absence of connected electric load and richer as the load increased.

Hydrogen fuel

Comparisons of the fuel consumptions and pollutant emissions running on gasoline and

Pollutant emissions

hydrogen were performed at the same engine speed and electric loads between 1 and 5 kW.

Power unit

The specific fuel consumption was much lower with the engine running on hydrogen than
on gasoline. At 5 kW of load up to 26% of thermal efficiency was reached with hydrogen
whereas only 20% was achieved with the engine running on gasoline. Regarding the NOx
emissions, they were low, of the order of 30 ppm for loads below 4 kW for the enginegenerator set working on hydrogen. The bi-fuel engine is very reliable and the required
modifications can be performed without excessive difficulties thus allowing taking
advantage of the well-established existing fabrication processes of internal combustion
engines looking to speed up the implementation of the energetic uses of hydrogen.
Copyright 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.

1.

Introduction

There is a renewed and increasing interest in the hydrogenfueled internal combustion engines (H2ICEs). This is mainly
due to the possibility of using the current manufacture

infrastructure of the automotive industry and the great

existing experience in H2ICEs design and in the adaptation of
engines developed to operate with conventional liquid
hydrocarbon fuels to run on hydrogen [1e3]. H2ICEs are
considered a technology with the potential to stimulate the

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 34 948 169 605; fax: 34 948 169 606.
E-mail addresses: pmde@unavarra.es (P.M. Dieguez), lgandia@unavarra.es (L.M. Ganda).
1
Deceased 18th December 2009.
0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.07.114

13782

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

Table 2 e Specifications of the alternator.

A.C. Generation

Three-phase generation (stand-by)

Three-phase generation (P.R.P.)
Single-phase generation
Duty cycle
(Cos)
Insulation class

50 Hz, synchronous,
three-phase, self-excited,
self-regulated
11 kVA (8.8 kW)/400 V/15.9 A
10 kVA (8 kW)/400 V/14.4 A
6 kVA (4.8 kW)/230 V/26 A
100%
0.8
H

considered as a transitional technology contributing to a more

rapid introduction of hydrogen in the transport sector while
H2FCEs and hybrid configurations continue developing [1,4]. In
this regard, it is very relevant the ability of properly designed
and modified H2ICEs to operate in bi-fuel mode, that is,
running on both gasoline and hydrogen. This feature might be
essential during the transition period for a rapid introduction

Fig. 1 e (A) Original commercial (MOSA GE 10000 BES/GS)

generator set; (B) Photograph of the completely modified
generator showing the gas cylinder used to store the
hydrogen fuel.

development of the hydrogen economy. Indeed, these engines

are available and very reliable, and currently much cheaper
than the options based on fuel cells with electric engines
(H2FCEs) both directly as well as in terms of fuel cost due to the
very high purity required to the hydrogen that has to be used
to feed low-temperature fuel cells [2]. H2ICEs might be

Table 1 e Specifications of the original engine-generator

set.
Engine
Bore  Stroke
Displacement
Compression ratio
Net power output
Net torque
Ignition system
Carburetor
Lubrication system
Governor system
Air cleaner
Dimensions (L  W  H )
Dry weight

Air-cooled, 4-stroke, OHV, 90 l V-twin

77  66 mm (3.0  2.6 in)
614 cm3
8.3:1
13.5 kW at 3600 rpm
40.6 N m at 2500 rpm
Transistorized magneto ignition
Horizontal type butterfly valve
Full pressure
Centrifugal mechanical
Dual element type
388  457  452 mm
42 kg

Fig. 2 e (A) Three-dimensional model of the inlet manifold

including the hydrogen injector (1), the gasoline injector (2)
and part of the intake manifold (3); (B) View of the
completely assembled intake manifold.

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

Fig. 3 e Detail of one of the electronic coils installed to

avoid backfire due to wasted sparks.

of hydrogen in the transport sector which is believed the

driving force for the use of hydrogen as a fuel [5].
With over 100 years of development maturity, the majority
of the R&D effort on H2ICEs has been directed toward their
application in the automotive sector particularly trying to
increase the power output and engine efficiency. Research
and development on this field has been led by companies as
BMW, Ford, MAN, Mazda and Quantum [6,7] as well as by
several laboratories, see e.g. [1e3,8e28]. In contrast, much less
work has been devoted to the application of H2ICEs to enginegenerator sets. However, these devices play important roles as

13783

auxiliary power units and energy sources for decentralized

applications as in the agricultural sector, particularly in the
developing countries, and can serve to introduce hydrogen as
a fuel in these areas [29].
There are very few examples on the manufacture or
adaptation of engine-generator sets to run on hydrogen. Jeong
et al. [30] modified a 2300 cm3 gas engine-generator originally
designed to be fueled with LPG to run on biogas (a CH4/CO2
mixture)ehydrogen blends. The generator included a vertical
water-cooled, four-cylinder, four-stroke, spark-ignition (SI)
turbocharged engine capable of yielding 22 kW of maximum
electric power at 1200 rpm. Main modifications affected the
intercooler, fueleair mixer, turbocharger and the fuel supply
line. Experiments performed at 1200 rpm and constant electric
power output of 10 kW showed that biogasehydrogen
mixtures can used to effectively feed the engine-generator set
working under lean-burn conditions. Both CO2 and NOx
emissions were reduced in comparison with the engine
operating with LPG. In a subsequent work, Lee et al. [31]
modified a 2300 cm3 gas engine-generator originally
designed to be fueled with natural gas and capable of yielding
30 kW of maximum electric power at 1800 rpm to run on
biogasehydrogen blends. In this case, the main modification
consisted in a low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation (EGR)
system. Regulations on NOx emissions were fulfilled with EGR
ratios above 15% but at the cost of reduced generating
efficiencies.
In this work the adaptation of a commercial gasoline
engine-generator set to a bi-fuel (hydrogen/gasoline) electronic fuel-injected power unit is described. In a previous
paper [27] we described the steps followed to convert the SI

Fig. 4 e Electric scheme showing the wiring of the modified engine-generator set.

13784

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

gasoline-fueled engine of a Volkswagen Polo 1.4 car to run on

hydrogen. Other works by our group dealt with renewable
hydrogen production from water electrolysis and wind energy
[32e34]. These studies are being carried out in the framework
of an R&D contract granted by Acciona Energa, a company
whose activities are focused in the renewables sector.

2.
Engine-generator set specifications and
modifications performed
The original engine-generator set (MOSA GE 10000 BES/GS) is
shown in Fig. 1A and its main characteristics as well as that of
the alternator are compiled in Tables 1 and 2, respectively.
This device provided up to 10 kVA on three-phase or 6 kVA on
single-phase generation. The generator included a four-stroke
90 V-twin air-cooled gasoline engine (Honda GX620) of
614 cm3. Ignition was achieved by means of transistorized
magneto ignition and gasoline was supplied through
carburetor.
Several modifications have been necessary to achieve bifuel operation of the engine-generator set. The completely
modified device is shown in Fig. 1B. All the engine transformations and the complete test program of the bi-fuel
power unit were carried out at the Laboratory of Internal
Combustion Engines of the Public University of Navarre. The
fuel system was changed from carburetor to a double injection
system for both gasoline and hydrogen fuels. The ignition
system was changed to electronic spark ignition in order to
avoid wasted sparks. An electronic control unit (ECU) and
several sensors were mounted as well for proper operation of
the power unit. These modifications are described in more
detail in the following subsections.

2.1.

Fig. 5 e Detail of the REF sensor facing the wheel teeth.

The hydrogen line was connected to the gas accumulator

through a pipe including a pressure gauge and a manual
valve.

Fuel feeding system

The inlet manifold was modified to place two injectors, one for
gasoline and the other for hydrogen, resulting this way
a multi-point injection system. To this end, a threedimensional model of the inlet manifold was previously
obtained by means of a surface probe scanner. With the help
of this model, both injectors were placed for minimal
condensation of gasoline and best cylinder filling with
hydrogen as shown in Fig. 2A.
Aluminum blocks were added to the aluminum inlet
manifold and then both injector seats were machined. In
order to prevent hydrogen leakages due to engine vibration
the injectors were firmly fixed to the manifold by means of
a support. One accumulator or common-rail for each fuel was
fabricated to maintain the pressure constant at the injectors
inlet. The completely assembled modified intake manifold,
including the fuel injectors and accumulators, is shown in
Fig. 2B.
To complete the fuel feeding system, an electric fuel
pump with integrated pressure regulator was placed on the
gasoline tank. The fuel was pumped through a line including
a filter and connected to the gasoline common-rail. The
hydrogen was stored at 200 bar in a 18 l gas cylinder,
mounted on the engine-generator set (see Fig. 1B). Hydrogen
pressure was reduced to about 4 bar by means of a regulator.

Fig. 6 e (A) One-tooth wheel fixed to camshaft; (B) SYNC

sensor mounted on the engine block cover.

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

13785

Fig. 7 e Throttle position sensor attached to the carburetor

throttle shaft.

Fig. 9 e Photograph showing the Peak&Hold driver on the

left and the ECU (center).

2.2.

following electronic sensors were required to work with the

ECU: REF sensor, SYNC sensor, throttle position sensor, wideband lambda oxygen sensor, temperature sensor and Peak&Hold driver. The electric scheme developed in this work is
shown in Fig. 4.
In order to achieve a sequential injection and ignition
system it is necessary for the control unit to know exactly the
actual angle of the engine cycle; this is done through both
crankshaft and camshaft sensors. The signal supplied by the
REF sensor is used by the ECU to determine the relative position of the cylinders to the TDC; it also allows determining the
engine speed. A toothed wheel was designed, fabricated and

Ignition system

The original ignition system consisted of a magneto ignition

mounted over the flywheel. This produced a spark at a fixed
advance angle referred to the top dead center (TDC) but also
a wasted spark was fired at the exhaust stroke. In order to
avoid backfiring due to wasted sparks, an electronic coil for
each cylinder was installed. The electronic coils were
controlled by a digital signal from the ECU and made the
engine to work on a sequential firing mode. A detail of one of
the electronic coil is shown in Fig. 3.

2.3.

Engine management system

A programmable electronic control unit (ECU) DTAfast S60 Pro

was installed. This unit was selected because of its sequential
injection and firing capability, lambda control and two
different sets of maps available. The existing electric wiring
was used and extended to reach the different sensors and
actuators used. For the proper operation of the engine the

Fig. 8 e Lambda oxygen sensor mounted in the engine

exhaust.

Fig. 10 e Oscilloscope screen showing the signals of the

TDC sensor (in red) and ignition (in white) after adjusting
the sensor position parameter when the ignition advance
was set to 0 . (For interpretation of the references to color
in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

13786

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

mounted on the crankshaft, fixed to the flywheel. A standard

Hall sensor was mounted as REF sensor, fixed to the engine
block and positioned facing the teeth on the wheel as shown
in Fig. 5. This sensor helped the ECU to determine the cylinder
position. In order to determine if the cylinder is on compression or exhaust stroke, intake or power stroke, an SYNC
sensor was necessary. A one-tooth wheel was mounted on the
camshaft (Fig. 6A) and a standard Hall sensor was mounted as
SYNC sensor on the engine block facing this wheel (Fig. 6B).
This was a very delicate modification that required opening of
the engine block. The cover of the engine block had to be
mechanized for the sensor to be installed.
The carburetor of the engine-generator set was kept up but
its fuel supply was disabled. A standard throttle position
sensor was attached to the throttle shaft of the carburetor
(Fig. 7). This potentiometer-type sensor communicated with
the ECU indicating the engine load.

As it is well-known the operation of an engine running on

gasoline needs to be adjusted close to stoichiometric air-tofuel ratio (l), whereas using hydrogen requires leaner l
ratios to avoid risk of pre-ignition, backfire, knock and high
NOx emissions [1,2]. A wide-band lambda sensor (Bosch LSU
4.2) and lambda controller (KMS) were installed. The engine
exhaust had to be machined in such a way that the lambda
sensor could be screwed as shown in Fig. 8. The KMS
controller consists of an electronic circuit that allows converting the air-to-fuel ratio (0.75  l  2.5) measured by the
sensor to a voltage signal which is read by the ECU. On
account of these modifications a closed-loop control of the l
value at which the engine was running could be performed.
The generator set mounted an air-cooled engine. For the
ECU to have a reference of the engine temperature, a sensor
was installed on the oil sump. The sensor tip was in contact
with the oil contained in the sump, and the sensor body was

Air-to-fuel ratio

A
3

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
0

gasoline

Electric load (kW)

hydrogen

Ignition advance (BTDC)

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0

3
gasoline

6
hydrogen

Electric load (kW)

Fig. 11 e (A) Air-to-fuel ratio and (B) ignition advance of the modified generator running on hydrogen and gasoline at
3000 rpm as a function of the electric power output.

13787

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

thermally insulated to minimize heat losses. This modification was performed to help the engine with cold starts and as
a safety measure since in the event of the oil temperature
reaching a given limit value the generator set will automatically stop to avoid oil overheating.
The hydrogen injectors incorporated into the enginegenerator set were Peak&Hold, that is, of the low impedance
type. The term Peak&Hold refers to the control strategy of
these injectors. Although they need a bigger power to operate
they provide a very fast response. The current intensity rises
during injector opening up to a Peak value and then falls to

a Hold value maintaining the injector opened. The hydrogen

injectors used in this work operated at 4 and 1 A during Peak
and Hold, respectively. Common high impedance injectors can
be driven directly by the ECU, but the low impedance ones
need a Peak&Hold driver which was not incorporated by the
ECU. The driver for both hydrogen injectors was designed,
fabricated and mounted on the generator set for a better heat
dissipation as shown in Fig. 9. Switching between gasoline
and hydrogen was driven by the ECU through a relay which
turns off the gasoline pump when hydrogen is selected. By
using a switch installed on the control panel the desired fuel is

Specific fuel consumption (g/kWh)

1400.00

1200.00

1000.00

800.00

600.00

400.00

200.00

0.00
0

sfc on gasoline

6
Electric load (kW)

gasoline eq. sfc for hydrogen

Thermal efficiency (% )

30.00

25.00

20.00

15.00

10.00

5.00

0.00
0

6
Electric load (kW)

gasoline

hydrogen

Fig. 12 e (A) Specific fuel consumptions (Sfc) for gasoline and the equivalent consumptions for hydrogen and (B) thermal
efficiency of the bi-fuel generator running on hydrogen and gasoline as a function of the electric power output.

13788

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

selected and the ECU changes to the corresponding injection

and ignition maps. Colored LEDs installed on the front panel
showed the status of the generating set as follows: green LED
indicated that power was turned on, blue LED indicated that
hydrogen fuel was selected, red LED indicated that engine
operation was prevented due to high temperature.

2.4.

ECU programming

Once the electrical wiring and all the electronics were

installed, the ECU had to be programmed for suitable enginegenerator set operation. The ECU was connected through
a long serial cable to a computer and the several engine
parameters (number of cylinders, number of injectors per
cylinder, cycle angles at which injectors or coils are activated,
etc.) were set. Moreover, every single sensor must be calibrated. First of all, the position of the TDC must be identified
because all the cycle angles were referred to it. This was done
through a Kistler TDC capacitive sensor installed in the spark
plug hole. An oscilloscope was used to monitor both ignition
and TDC sensor signals. Ignition advance was set to 0 and
then the position parameter was varied until the ignition
signal fired at the end of the compression stroke matching the
TDC signal as illustrated in Fig. 10. The camshaft position
sensor was also calibrated by recording the REF and SYNC
signals, referring them to the TDC and adjusting the corresponding ECU parameter.

3.

Test facilities

A test cell adapted to work with hydrogen through suitable

hydrogen supply and safety systems and described in
a previous work was used [27]. This test bed cell consisted of
an eddy current dynamometer AVL 80 capable of absorbing up
to 80 kW of power, with a BME 300 control system allowing
performing tests using as control parameters the torque, the
accelerator position and the engine speed. The performance
of the bi-fuel generating set was investigated in the test bed

cell. The main parameters used were the electrical output,

engine speed, injection time, ignition advance and l. A Bosch
analyzer was attached to determine CO, CO2, hydrocarbons
(HC) and O2 in the exhaust gases, and a Horiba MEXA-720NOx
analyzer was used to determine NOx. Hydrogen consumption
was measured with a Bronkhorst EL-FLOW F-110C mass
flow meter.
The main engine parameters were displayed and recorded
through the onboard ECU data logger, which could log main
parameters such as engine speed, injection pulse duration,
ignition advance, l and throttle position among others.
Additionally, a National Instruments NI-CompacDAQ data
acquisition system (DAS) was used. A program developed
under Labview software allowed collecting additional data
such as mean values of hydrogen consumption and NOx and
O2 at the exhaust.

4.

Engine management

The engine control was done by means of the ECU after

developing the injection and ignition timing maps. To this
end, the engine speed and throttle position were given as
input signals and the width of the injection pulse and the
ignition timing were generated as output signals. Management included also oil temperature corrections, maximum
speed engine and l control. Initially, conservative ignition
advance values were used, and injection was increased
progressively. Then ignition was slowly advanced until
adequate performance was achieved. Injection and ignition
timing maps introduced in the ECU were obtained from the
results of tests conducted in the test cell. The engine speed
was set at 3000 rpm in order to obtain a 50 Hz sine wave. The
generator set was loaded from 0 to 5 kW in steps of 500 W.

4.1.

Injection timing

Injection timing maps were obtained for gasoline and

hydrogen. The strategy followed for gasoline was to adjust

Thermal efficiency (%)

30,00
29,50
29,00
28,50
28,00
27,50
lambda 1.46

27,00

lambda 1.67
lambda 1.85

26,50

lambda 2

26,00
0

10

15

20

25

30

Ignition advance (BTDC)

Fig. 13 e Thermal efficiency of the bi-fuel generator running on hydrogen as a function of the ignition advance for the values
of the air-to-fuel ratio indicated.

13789

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

the electric power output and engine speed depend on the

brake torque. Therefore, at a fixed electric load, the spark is
advanced in order to obtain low specific fuel consumption
values. A conservative approach was adopted in this work,
namely working with ignition advances which are far from
producing engine knock, that is, the spontaneous autoignition of the end-gas [2]. As shown in Fig. 11B the ignition
advances for both fuels have to be decreased as the electric
load increases. On the other hand, the ignition advance when
the engine is running on hydrogen is lower than when
gasoline is used as fuel. The difference between these
advances increases with the electric load which can be
related to the higher combustion rate of hydrogen compared
with that of gasoline [1].

injection timing in order to obtain a constant air-to-fuel ratio

around the stoichiometric value, which made it possible to
reach 10 kW at peak. In the case of hydrogen, and due to the
wide flammability limits of hydrogeneair mixtures, a variable l map was developed in which l ranged from about 3
without load to around 1.7 at a load of 5 kW (Fig. 11A). Above
5 kW of load the engine speed could not be maintained at
3000 rpm.

4.2.

Ignition timing

Ignition is usually advanced while maintaining the air-to-fuel

ratio constant until the maximum brake torque (MBT) is
achieved. However, in the case of the engine-generator set

HC emissions (ppm)

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0

gasoline

Electric load (kW)

hydrogen

NOx emissions (ppm)

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
0

gasoline

hydrogen

6
Electric load (kW)

Fig. 14 e (A) Unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and (B) NOx emissions of the bi-fuel generator running on hydrogen and gasoline
as a function of the electric power output.

13790

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

5.

Results and discussion

5.1.

Specific fuel consumption and thermal efficiency

The tests performed at the same electric loads show overall

better specific fuel consumptions and thermal efficiencies
running on hydrogen than on gasoline. It should be noted that
using electrical power output instead of brake torque leads to
a lower final thermal efficiency because of the alternator
conversion efficiency. The tests were performed at 3000 rpm,
the nominal engine speed of the generator set. Electric loads
were varied between 0 and 5 kW in steps of 1 kW and the fuel
consumption was recorded. The specific fuel consumptions
for gasoline and the equivalent consumptions for hydrogen
are compared in Fig. 12A. As can be seen the fuel consumption
is lower running on hydrogen than on gasoline. The difference
decreases with the load from about 34% at 1 kW lower running
on hydrogen to 24% at load of 5 kW.

The thermal efficiency is derived from the specific fuel

consumption and the results are shown in Fig. 12B. As
expected, the thermal efficiency is greater running on
hydrogen compared to gasoline. At 5 kW of load up to 26% of
thermal efficiency is reached with hydrogen whereas a value
of 20% is achieved with the engine running on gasoline. It
should be noted that the engine was not working at wide open
throttle (WOT), so its thermal efficiency could be even higher.
The better efficiency of the engine-generator set working on
hydrogen was confirmed by means of the value of the steady
oil temperature that at the same electric load was about 5  C
lower running on hydrogen than on gasoline.
When the engine is fueled with hydrogen, the ignition
timing also affects the thermal efficiency as illustrated in
Fig. 13. As can be seen, for a given air-to-fuel ratio the thermal
efficiency increases slightly with the ignition advance until
a maximum value is reached; a further increase of the
advance leads to a decrease of the efficiency. The advance
corresponding to the maximum efficiency increases with the

NOx (ppm) vs lambda

A 300
250

200

150

100

50

0
1,7

1,8

1,9

2,1

2,2

2,3

2,4

2,5

900,0
lambda>2.49

800,0

lambda 2.38
lambda 1.88

700,0
NOx (ppm)

lambda 1.82
lambda 1.66

600,0

lambda 1.48

500,0
400,0
300,0
200,0
100,0
0,0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Advance (BTDC)

Fig. 15 e NOx emissions of the bi-fuel generator running on hydrogen as a function of (A) the air-to-fuel ratio and (B) the
ignition advance for the values of the air-to-fuel ratio indicated.

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

air-to-fuel ratio from 10 BTDC for l 1.46 to 20 BTDC for
l 2.0. Maximum thermal efficiencies under these operating
conditions were 27.5 and 29.2%, respectively.

5.2.

Pollutant emissions

When working on hydrogen, CO and unburned hydrocarbons

(HC) emissions due to lubricating oil burning were very low. In
this case, the most important pollutants in the exhaust gases
were nitrogen oxides (NOx). Unburned hydrogen emissions
were negligible for l values lower than 3. HC, CO and CO2
emissions when running on gasoline were the typical ones for
this type of engines that do not incorporate a catalytic
converter. As shown in Fig. 14A HC emissions when using
gasoline were relatively constant and around 48 ppm for loads
below 4 kW but decreased to 35 ppm at 5 kW of load. When
using hydrogen, the HC concentration in the exhaust was
about 8e9 ppm irrespective of the load.
As concerns the NOx emissions, the results can be seen in
Fig. 14B. When running on gasoline the NOx emissions rise as
the load increases from about 160 ppm at 1 kW up to 750 ppm
at 5 kW. On the other hand, running on hydrogen the NOx
emissions were much lower, of the order of 30 ppm for loads
below 4 kW and up to 125 ppm at 5 kW.
It has been found that NOx emissions of the hydrogenfueled engine depended mainly on the air-to-fuel ratio as
shown in Fig. 15A. As far as l is above 2 the NOx could be
maintained at the 60e40 ppm level; however, for values of l
below 2, the NOx emissions increased rapidly. Indeed, it can
be seen in Fig. 15B that the NOx emissions are in the
120e430 ppm range at l 1.66 and that they increase up to
310e770 ppm at l 1.48. This is a well-known behavior
related to the combustion temperature, that increases as the
mixture becomes richer (lower l) thus favoring the thermal
NOx formation. Interestingly, for l below 2 the ignition
advance has a marked influence on the NOx emissions since
the concentration of these pollutants in the exhaust gases
increases as the ignition advance increases as well. It seems
likely that this result is due to an increased residence time
in the cylinder of the reacting mixture formed after ignition
as the advance increases. A similar effect on the NOx
emissions was found in our previous study with the SI
engine of a Volkswagen Polo 1.4 car modified to run on
hydrogen [27].

6.

Conclusions

The conversion of a commercial gasoline-fueled enginegenerator set to an electronic fuel-injected generator running
on both hydrogen and gasoline has been carried out. Main
modifications included the inlet manifold, low-pressure
hydrogen accumulator, gasoline and hydrogen injectors, the
installation of a programmable electronic control unit as well
as a gas cylinder of 18 l to store hydrogen at 200 bar.
The modified bi-fuel generator set running on hydrogen
supplied up to 5e6 kW at the nominal engine speed of
3000 rpm and l of 1.5. The specific fuel consumption was
much more favorable with hydrogen resulting in consumptions between 34 and 24% lower than running on gasoline for

13791

loads in the 1e5 kW range. The operation on hydrogen

produced nitrogen oxides emissions that were 5e7 times
lower than when using gasoline provided that l for hydrogen
is maintained above 2.
The adaptation of internal combustion engines, particularly the spark ignition ones to work bi-fuel (hydrogen/gasoline) is relatively easy and it is not expensive. These modified
engines have great potential for speeding up the implantation
of the energetic uses of hydrogen, not only for the transportation sector, but also for the distributed production of
electricity. The creation and development of a hydrogen
infrastructure would also be benefited. These advantages
mainly arise from the fact that the well-established fabrication processes of internal combustion engines could be
maintained almost unchanged. Moreover, gasoline use in bifuel engines could be restricted to peak power demand
periods.

Acknowledgments
We would like to express our gratitude to our friend Carlos
Sopena, tragically deceased on December 18, 2009. Dear Carlos, we will follow your teachings to finish your work.
We gratefully acknowledge Acciona Biocombustibles S.A.
for its financial support under R&D contract to the Public
University of Navarra OTRI 2006 13 118 (CENIT project:
SPHERA). LMG, GA and PMD also acknowledge financial
support by Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Spanish
Government (ENE2009-14522-C05-03 and TRA2009-0265-02).

references

[1] White CM, Steeper RR, Lutz AE. The hydrogen-fueled internal
combustion engine: a technical review. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2006;31:1292e305.
[2] Verhelst S, Wallner T. Hydrogen-fueled internal combustion
engines. Prog Energy Combust Sci 2009;35:490e527.
[3] Escalante Soberanis MA, Fernandez AM. A review on the
technical adaptations for internal combustion engines to
operate with gas/hydrogen mixtures. Int J Hydrogen Energy
2010;35:12134e40.
[4] Winter C-J. Hydrogen energy-abundant, efficient, clean:
a debate over the energy-system-of-change. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2009;34:S1e52.
[5] Wietschel M, Ball M, Seydel P. Hydrogen today. In: Ball M,
Wietschel M, editors. The hydrogen economy. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press; 2009. p. 254e70 [chapter 8].
[6] Eichlseder H, Grabner P, Heindl R. Hydrogen internal
combustion engines. In: Stolten D, editor. Hydrogen and fuel
cells. Weinheim: WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.; 2010. p.
811e30 [chapter 39].
[7] Wallner T, Lohse-Busch H, Gurski S, Duoba M, Thiel W,
Martin D, et al. Fuel economy and emissions evaluation of
BMW hydrogen 7 mono-fuel demonstration vehicles. Int J
Hydrogen Energy 2008;33:7607e18.
[8] Lee SJ, Yi HS, Kim ES. Combustion characteristics of intake
port injection type hydrogen fueled engine. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 1995;20:317e22.
[9] Vandenborre H, Sierens R. Greenbus: a hydrogen fuelled city
bus. Int J Hydrogen Energy 1996;21:521e4.

13792

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 3 7 8 1 e1 3 7 9 2

[10] Naber JD, Siebers DL. Hydrogen combustion under diesel

engine conditions. Int J Hydrogen Energy 1998;23:363e71.
[11] Guo LS, Lu HB, Li JD. A hydrogen injection system with
solenoid valves for a four-cylinder hydrogen-fuelled engine.
Int J Hydrogen Energy 1999;24:377e82.
[12] Sierens R, Verhelst S. Experimental study of a hydrogenfuelled engine. J Eng Gas Turbines Power 2001;123:211e6.
[13] Sierens R, Verhelst S, Verstraeten S. An overview of
hydrogen fuelled internal combustion engines. International
Hydrogen Energy Congress and Exhibition (IHEC-2005)
Istanbul, Turkey, 13e15 July 2005.
[14] Verhelst S, Sierens R. Aspects concerning the optimisation of
a hydrogen fueled engine. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2001;26:
981e5.
[15] Verhelst S, Sierens R. Hydrogen engine-specific properties.
Int J Hydrogen Energy 2001;26:987e90.
[16] Karim GA. Hydrogen as a spark ignition engine fuel. Int J
Hydrogen Energy 2003;28:569e77.
[17] Li H, Karim GA. Knock in spark ignition hydrogen engines.
Int J Hydrogen Energy 2004;29:859e65.
[18] Mohammadi A, Shioji M, Nakai Y, Ishikura W, Tabo E.
Performance and combustion characteristics of a direct
injection SI hydrogen engine. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2007;32:
296e304.
[19] Kahraman E, Cihangir Ozcanl S, Ozerdem B. An
experimental study on performance and emission
characteristics of a hydrogen fuelled spark ignition engine.
Int J Hydrogen Energy 2007;32:2066e72.
[20] Szwaja S, Bhandary KR, Naber JD. Comparisons of hydrogen
and gasoline combustion knock in a spark ignition engine.
Int J Hydrogen Energy 2007;32:5076e87.
[21] Ho T, Karri V, Lim D, Barret D. An investigation of engine
performance parameters and artificial intelligent emission
prediction of hydrogen powered car. Int J Hydrogen Energy
2008;33:3837e46.
[22] Verhelst S, Maesschalck P, Rombaut N, Sierens R. Efficiency
comparison between hydrogen and gasoline, on a bi-fuel
hydrogen/gasoline engine. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2009;34:
2504e10.
[23] Verhelst S, Maesschalck P, Rombaut N, Sierens R. Increasing
the power output of hydrogen internal combustion engines

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]

[32]

[33]

[34]

by means of supercharging and exhaust gas recirculation. Int

J Hydrogen Energy 2009;34:4406e12.
Kawahara N, Tomita E. Visualization of auto-ignition and
pressure wave during knocking in a hydrogen spark-ignition
engine. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2009;34:3156e63.
Szwaja S, Grab-Rogalinski K. Hydrogen combustion in
a compression ignition diesel engine. Int J Hydrogen Energy
2009;34:4413e21.
Gomes Antunes JM, Mikalsen R, Roskilly AP. An experimental
study of a direct injection compression ignition hydrogen
engine. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2009;34:6516e22.
Sopena C, Dieguez PM, Sainz D, Urroz JC, Guelbenzu E,
Ganda LM. Conversion of a commercial spark ignition engine
to run on hydrogen: performance comparison using hydrogen
and gasoline. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2010;35:1420e9.
Ji C, Wang S, Zhang B. Effect of spark timing on the
performance of a hybrid hydrogen-gasoline engine at lean
conditions. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2010;35:2203e12.
Das LM. Near-term introduction of hydrogen engines for
automotive and agricultural application. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2002;27:479e87.
Jeong C, Kim T, Lee K, Song S, Chun KM. Generating
efficiency and emissions of a spark-ignition gas engine
generator fuelled with biogas-hydrogen blends. Int J
Hydrogen Energy 2009;34:9620e7.
Lee K, Kim T, Cha H, Song S, Chun KM. Generating efficiency
and NOx emissions of a gas engine generator fueled with
a biogas-hydrogen blend and using an exhaust gas
recirculation system. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2010;35:5723e30.
Ganda LM, Oroz R, Ursua A, Sanchis P, Dieguez PM.
Renewable hydrogen production: performance of an alkaline
water electrolyzer working under emulated wind conditions.
Energy Fuels 2007;21:1699e706.
Dieguez PM, Ursua A, Sanchis P, Sopena C, Guelbenzu E,
Ganda LM. Thermal performance of a commercial alkaline
water electrolyzer: experimental study and mathematical
modeling. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2008;33:7338e54.
Ursua A, Marroyo L, Guba E, Ganda LM, Dieguez PM,
Sanchis P. Influence of the power supply on the energy
efficiency of an alkaline water electrolyser. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2009;34:3221e33.