Future technological directions for hydrogen internal combustion engines in transport applications

The paper discusses some of the requirements, drivers, and resulting technological paths for manufacturers to develop hydrogen combustion engines for use in two types of market application – on-road heavy- and light-duty. One of the main requirements is legislative certainty, and this has now been afforded – at least in the major market of Europe – by the European Union's recent adoption into law of tailpipe emissions limits specifically designed to encourage the uptake of hydrogen engines in heavy-duty vehicles, giving manufacturers the confidence they need to invest in productionized solutions to offer to customers.

It then discusses combustion systems and boosting systems for the two market types, emphasizing that heavy-duty vehicles need best efficiency throughout their operating map while light-duty ones, since they are rarely operated at full load, will mainly primarily need efficiency in the part-load region. This difference will likely cause a divergence in solutions, with heavy-duty engines running very lean everywhere and light-duty ones likely operating at the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, at least for most of the map. The impacts of the strategies on engine systems and vehicle integration are discussed.

It is postulated that due to reasons of preignition avoidance and efficiency hydrogen engines will rapidly adopt direct injection and that the long-term heavy-duty types will migrate towards the typical current spark-ignition-type cylinder head architecture where tumble, rather than swirl, will ultimately be needed for air motion in the cylinder for these reasons. They may also adopt active pre-chamber technology to ignite extremely lean mixtures for maximum efficiency and minimum emissions of oxides of nitrogen.

It is suggested that light-duty engines will evolve less from their current gasoline architectural norm since they already contain all of the necessary fundamentals for hydrogen combustion. However, since part-load efficiency will be important, some new strategies may become desirable. Developing dual-fuel light-duty engines could accelerate their uptake as the heavy-duty market simultaneously accelerates the creation of the fuel supply infrastructure.

The likely technological evolution suggests that variable valve trains, and specifically cam profile switching technology, would be extremely useful for all types of hydrogen engine, especially since they are readily available in different gasoline engines now. New operating strategies afforded by variable valve trains would benefit both heavy- and light-duty engines, and these strategies will become more sophisticated. There will therefore likely be a convergence of technologies for the two markets, albeit with some key differences maintained due to their vehicle applications and their differing operation in the field.