The design and testing of a hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine

A conventional single cylinder 425 cc four stroke internal combustion Polaris engine has been modified to run on hydrogen gas. For such an effort, both port injection as well as direct injection of hydrogen were attempted on the engine in order to evaluate its performance. The emphasis was placed on using direct injection of hydrogen over port injection, thereby utilizing the benefits of having high potential with regard to power, efficiency and also the minimization of NOx emissions. The engine was tested at Kell's automotive using a specially designed dynamometer for this purpose. Various performance parameters like power, torque, emissions, etc were evaluated by the installation of different software's like Dynamite, e-com and KAM's. Problems of irregular combustion owing to pre-ignition in the intake and compression phase, knocking combustion and also lower power output as a result of the larger range of flammability were observed during the performance evaluation. Finally, direct injection of hydrogen has been a viable approach on the Polaris engine.