US EPA

1689710 

Journal Article 

Hydrogen combustion under diesel engine conditions 

Naber, JD; Siebers, DL 

1998 

Yes 

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
ISSN: 0360-3199 

23 

5 

363-371 

WOS:000072348100008 

The autoignition and combustion of hydrogen were investigated in a constant-volume combustion vessel under simulated direct-injection (DI) diesel engine conditions. The parameters varied in the investigation included: the injection pressure and temperature, the orifice diameter, and the ambient gas pressure, temperature and composition. The results show that the ignition delay of hydrogen under DI diesel conditions has a strong, Arrhenius dependence on temperature; however, the dependence on the other parameters examined is small. For gas densities typical of top-dead-center (TDC) in diesel engines, ignition delays of less than 1.0 ms were obtained for gas-temperatures greater than 1120 K with oxygen concentrations as low as 5% (by volume). These data confirm that compression ignition of hydrogen is possible in a diesel engine at reasonable TDC conditions. In addition, the results show that DI hydrogen combustion rates are insensitive to reduced oxygen concentrations. The insensitivity of ignition delay and combustion rate to reduced oxygen concentration is significant because it offers the potential for a dramatic reduction in the emission of nitric oxides from a compression-ignited DI hydrogen engine through use of exhaust-gas-recirculation. (C) 1998 International Association for Hydrogen Energy.