At the recently concluded 2024 Hannover Motor Show in Germany, the Hydrogen Engine Alliance, together with industry partners such as Cummins, MAN, and Bosch, emphasized that hydrogen internal combustion engines will play an important role in the global decarbonization process. In addition, compared with other zero-carbon technologies, hydrogen internal combustion engine technology has more economic advantages in terms of initial investment costs.
Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engines Have Attracted Much Attention
Under the general trend of global energy conservation and emission reduction, it is imperative for the transportation industry to accelerate the process of carbon reduction and decarbonization. As a key factor in promoting energy transformation and upgrading, hydrogen energy has become the focus of competition between commercial vehicle and internal combustion engine companies for diversified technology research and development around hydrogen fuel. Among them, hydrogen internal combustion engines can not only meet emission reduction requirements, but also be comparable to traditional internal combustion engines in terms of operating costs. This unique advantage makes it stand out in the competition of many new energy power technologies and become a preferred solution for many companies.
At present, Europe is making every effort to promote the development of the hydrogen power industry, and many commercial vehicle manufacturers are paying attention to or have begun feasibility studies on hydrogen internal combustion engines. They generally believe that hydrogen internal combustion engines are a preferred solution with relatively low implementation thresholds and cost-effectiveness.
In addition, Cummins, a US power equipment manufacturing giant, has launched the Hydrogen Fuel Internal Combustion Engine (H2-ICE) program, which focuses on the research and development of 6.7-liter medium-duty and 15-liter heavy-duty hydrogen internal combustion engines. Jane Beaman, vice president of Cummins’ global road and pickup business, said that hydrogen internal combustion engines rely on decades of mature and proven internal combustion engine technology in the industry, providing strong support for the world to achieve zero emissions goals. Hydrogen internal combustion engines are not only similar to traditional engines in appearance, but their components are also highly compatible with those used in current vehicles, which greatly simplifies the integration process for vehicle manufacturers and reduces complexity. More importantly, hydrogen internal combustion engines can use zero-carbon hydrogen fuel to achieve extremely low emissions, which is a key technology to help the world achieve carbon reduction goals.
In addition to the accelerated layout of European and American commercial vehicle companies to develop hydrogen internal combustion engine technology, my country’s vehicle and parts companies have also made breakthrough progress in this field. For example, the first domestic heavy-duty commercial vehicle direct-injection hydrogen engine independently developed by FAW Jiefang has achieved stable operation, with an operating power of over 368kW and an indicated thermal efficiency of over 55%; the heavy-duty truck equipped with a 13-liter hydrogen internal combustion engine jointly launched by China National Heavy Duty Truck Group and Weichai Power has an effective thermal efficiency of 41.8%; the hydrogen internal combustion engine independently developed by Hydrogen Green New Energy has successfully achieved ignition operation, and built the first domestic hydrogen internal combustion engine test bench that can operate continuously for 500 hours without interruption. In addition, the YCK16H hydrogen engine independently developed by Yuchai has a thermal efficiency of over 45% and a maximum output power of 412kW, reaching the world’s advanced level.
At this year’s Hannover Motor Show, Weichai displayed the WP15 hydrogen internal combustion engine, which effectively reduces fuel consumption by precisely controlling the hydrogen supply and combustion process, thereby achieving lower operating costs. In addition, the WP15 hydrogen internal combustion engine can adapt to a variety of complex working conditions and harsh environments, ensuring long-term stable operation of the engine and achieving near-zero emission goals.
Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engines Have Significant Advantages
Domestic and foreign companies are pouring into the field of hydrogen internal combustion engines, and the value and potential of this technology route are gradually being recognized.
“The performance of hydrogen internal combustion engines fully meets the standards for large-scale mass production, and mainstream companies have generally completed relevant technology research and development and product reserves.” Han Zhiyu, a professor at the School of Automotive Engineering of Tongji University, believes that there are no fundamental scientific problems in the field of hydrogen internal combustion engines, and the key lies in engineering. A breakthrough in technology. At present, relying on the profound foundation of internal combustion engine technology, hydrogen internal combustion engine technology has developed to a certain height, and the overall performance of its power system is sufficient to support mass production applications. In addition, the thermal efficiency of hydrogen internal combustion engines has exceeded 40%. It performs better in the field of commercial vehicles and is close to the level of traditional fuel internal combustion engines. However, there is still room for improvement in the wear resistance of hydrogen-related parts such as nozzles. In the future, as industrialization continues to advance, these detailed issues are expected to be continuously optimized and solved in mass production practice.
“More importantly, hydrogen internal combustion engines have more cost and promotion advantages.” Cheng Xiaobei, a professor at the School of Energy and Power of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said that on the one hand, hydrogen internal combustion engines have good fuel adaptability and can not only use pure hydrogen as power It can also be mixed with methanol, ammonia fuel, etc. for combustion, effectively reducing the dependence on petroleum resources; on the other hand, the hydrogen internal combustion engine is more efficient and economical in terms of technical implementation. It retains the main structure of the traditional internal combustion engine and can rely on the existing industrial system. Carry out low-cost mass production, eliminating the high cost and time investment of rebuilding the industrial chain. In addition, compared with fuel cells, the technical implementation of hydrogen internal combustion engines is less difficult, the cost investment is more controllable, and large-scale promotion and application can be achieved in a shorter time.
Constraints Cannot Be Ignored
It has become a general consensus in the industry that hydrogen internal combustion engines have broad development prospects in the field of commercial vehicles. However, it cannot be ignored that the hydrogen internal combustion engine industry is still in its infancy and faces many challenges in order to achieve large-scale promotion.
“The volume energy density of hydrogen at room temperature and pressure is extremely low, so it needs to be liquefied to meet the subsequent storage, transportation and application needs. However, this liquefaction process has a large energy loss, and under current technical conditions, the conversion cost is relatively high. In addition, in order to ensure the stability of liquefied hydrogen storage, special containers must be used, which must have antifreeze, pressure resistance and strict insulation properties, which are difficult to manufacture and costly.
In the future, developing green and efficient hydrogen preparation technology and solving hydrogen storage problems will be crucial to the development of hydrogen internal combustion engines. At the same time, it should be noted that the lack of infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations is also another major challenge hindering the development of hydrogen internal combustion engines. “If hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can share infrastructure such as hydrogenation stations, it will not only effectively alleviate the problem of insufficient infrastructure construction of the hydrogen system, but also significantly improve the current low utilization rate of fuel cell vehicle hydrogenation stations. Operational efficiency. From this perspective, the development of hydrogen internal combustion engines is of positive significance.
Although hydrogen internal combustion engines have certain advantages in terms of environmental protection, energy efficiency and economy, their technological maturity still needs to be improved. Specifically, the accuracy of hydrogen combustion control and the safety of on-board hydrogen storage systems still face technical bottlenecks. These problems need to be overcome by optimizing engine combustion control strategies and adjusting system design. At the same time, the durability and reliability of hydrogen internal combustion engines also need to be verified over a long period of time to ensure that they can serve the majority of transportation practitioners stably and reliably.
At this year’s Hannover Motor Show, the Hydrogen Engine Alliance also proposed that hydrogen internal combustion engines should be formally included in the zero-emission system at the legal level to promote the global promotion and application of this technology. In this regard, Jane Beaman said that although hydrogen internal combustion engine technology has made some progress in some parts of the world, we still need to work together to incorporate it into a broader global carbon reduction policy system, which will help accelerate the construction of hydrogen energy infrastructure and effectively promote the wider popularization and application of this technology.
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