Component and Combustion Optimization of a Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine to Reach High Specific Power for Heavy-Duty Applications

Hydrogen internal combustion engines are a robust and cost-efficient solution to decarbonize the heavy- duty on- and off-highway vehicle sectors. Mature base technology, low additional system costs, and no dependence on expensive raw materials will enable a fast market penetration and thus a rapid reduction of CO2 emissions, provided customer expectations for performance, driving range and total cost of ownership as well as regulatory requirements such as ultra-low pollutant emissions can be met.

The power density of a hydrogen engine is currently limited by uncontrolled combustion events such as knocking, pre-ignition and backfiring. Tenneco, TME and FEV show in this paper how the optimization of components and combustion strategies minimizes these risks such that Diesel-like performance can be reached.