A Review on Experimental Studies Investigating the Effect of Hydrogen Supplementation in CI Diesel Engines—The Case of HYMAR

Abstract

Hydrogen supplementation in diesel Compression Ignition (CI) engines is gaining more attention, since it is considered as a feasible solution to tackle the challenges that are related to the emission regulations that will be applied in the forthcoming years. Such a solution is very attractive because it requires only limited modifications to the existing technology of internal combustion CI engines. To this end, numerous work on the investigation of an engine’s performance and the effects of emissions when hydrogen is supplied in the engine’s cylinders has been completed by researchers. However, contradictory results were found among these studies regarding the efficiency of the engine and the emission characteristics achieved compared to the diesel-only operation. The different conclusions might be attributed to the different characteristics and technology level of the engines that were utilized, as well as on the chosen operational parameters. This paper aims to present an overview of the experimental studies that have examined the effects of hydrogen addition in CI four-stroke diesel engines, reporting the characteristics of the utilized engines, the quantities of hydrogen tested, the method of hydrogen induction used, as well as the operational conditions tested, in order to help interested researchers to easily identify relevant and appropriate studies to perform comparisons or validations by repeating certain cases. The presented data do not include any results or conclusions from these studies. Furthermore, an experimental configuration along with the appropriate modifications on a heavy-duty auxiliary generator-set engine that was recently developed by the authors for the purposes of the HYMAR project is presented.