Abstract

Discussions surrounding the hydrogen economy centre primarily on the use of ultra clean hydrogen to power Fuel Cells. This paper examines the potential for burning hydrogen in ICEs as part of a mixed fuel charge in order to take advantage of cheaper brown hydrogen and the advanced nature of the modern petrol ICE. This paper presents a low-cost mixed fuel ICE solution that was developed and fitted to a gasoline spark ignited production vehicle. The findings from a series of investigative performance tests are presented, which show a reduction of three primary pollutants: CO2; CO and hydrocarbons along with a set of drive cycle tests from which full emission results were collected. These showed that in a full driving cycle care must be taken with the engine mapping in order to ensure a complete burn in all modes of operation. In addition the anticipated NOx increase was impossible to avoid but the authors suggest practical steps to reduce this to acceptable levels.