An onboard hydrogen generator for hydrogen enhanced combustion with internal combustion engine

Hydrogen enhanced combustion (HEC) for internal combustion engine is known to be a simple mean for improving engine efficiency in fuel saving and cleaner exhaust. An onboard compact and high efficient methanol steam reformer is made and installed in the tailpipe of a vehicle to produce hydrogen continuously onboard by using the waste heat of the engine for heating up the reformer; this provides a practical device for the HEC to become a reality. This use of waste heat from engine enables an extremely high process efficiency of 113% to convert methanol (8.68 MJ) for 1.0 NM of hydrogen (9.83 MJ) and low cost of using hydrogen as an enhancer or as a fuel itself. The test results of HEC from the onboard hydrogen production are presented with 2 gasoline engine vehicles and 2 diesel engines; the results indicate a hike of engine efficiency in 15–25% fuel saving and a 40–50% pollutants reduction including 70% reduction of exhaust smoke. The use of hydrogen as an enhancer brings about 2–3 fold of net reductions in energy, carbon dioxide emission and fuel cost expense over the input of methanol feed for hydrogen production.     

Hydrogenoxygen steam generator for a closed hydrogen combustion cycle

The paper deals with the problems of hydrogen combustion in an oxygen environment to produce high-temperature steam to be used in electricity generation at various power stations including nuclear power plants (NPP). For example, the use of H₂/O₂ steam generator within a hydrogen energy complex may allow increasing the NPP power and efficiency under operating conditions due to hydrogen steam superheating of the main working fluid in a steam-turbine unit. In addition, the use of the hydrogen energy complex may allow adapting NPP to variable electric load schedules with the increasing share of such power stations as well as developing environmentally friendly technologies for electricity generation. In the paper, a new solution to the problem of the effective and safe use of hydrogen energy at NPP with a hydrogen energy complex has been proposed.Technical solutions to hydrogen combustion in an oxygen environment using direct injection of cooling water or water steam into combustion products may have a significant weakness, namely the “quenching” phenomenon occurring during water/water steam injection resulting in the recombination efficiency decrease during the cooling of combustion products which is reflected in the increased proportion of non-condensable gases. In this case, the supply of such mixture to the steam-power cycle may be unsafe, as it could result in the increased concentration of unburned hydrogen in the steam turbine flow path. In the paper, a closed hydrogen cycle along with the hydrogen steam superheating system on its basis has been proposed to solve this problem. The closed-circuit system of hydrogen combustion preventing hydrogen permeation into the working fluid of a steam cycle completely as well as ensuring its full oxidation due to some excess of circulating oxygen has been investigated by the authors.Two types of H₂/O₂ combustion chambers for the system of safe hydrogen steam superheating in NPP cycle by using the closed-circuit system of hydrogen combustion in an oxygen environment have been considered in the study. The required parameters of H₂/O₂ steam generator with regard to operating temperature conditions as well as the power range of H₂/O₂ steam generators with the proposed combustion chamber construction design have been determined by mathematical modeling of the combustion and heat-mass-exchange processes.     

Efficiency of hydrogen internal combustion engine combined with open steam Rankine cycle recovering water and waste heat

A hydrogen internal combustion engine (HICE) wastes more heat, and producing nearly three times more water than a conventional engine. This paper describes the principle behind a novel waste heat recovery sub-system that exploits the water produced by an HICE as the working fluid for an open-cycle power generation system based on the Rankine cycle. Water from the HICE exhaust is superheated by the waste heat from the HICE and used to produce power in a steam expander. A fundamental thermodynamic model shows the contribution of the sub-system to the overall thermal efficiency of the HICE at various engine speeds, with and without a condenser. The results show that the condenser is not cost-effective and that the overall thermal efficiency with the proposed sub-system is 27.2% to 33.6%, representing improvements of 2.9% to 3.7%, at engine speeds of 1500 to 4500 rpm.     

Experimental study of the processes in hydrogen-oxygen gas generator

The paper presents a hydrogen-oxygen gas generator, which could be a key element of a novel scheme of hybrid hydrogen-air energy storage system, which proposes to store energy in both compressed air and hydrogen. At a power generation mode, hydrogen is combusted in oxygen, the produced steam is mixed with air and the gas mixture is used in a conventional gas turbine. The experimental hydrogen-oxygen gas generator has produced gas with temperatures 953–1163 K at pressures 2–4 MPa and has reached the thermal capacity up to 210 kW and thermal efficiency up to 95–99%. Separation of the combustion zone and air injection has helped to reduce NO_x content in the product gas to 11 mg/st.m³.     

Effects of particle sizes on performances of the multi-zone steam generator using waste heat in a bio-oil steam reforming hydrogen production system

Hydrogen production by bio-oil steam reforming is an advanced production technology. It is a good method of coupling waste heat utilization with bio-oil steam reforming to produce hydrogen, which increases the cleaning ability of the bio-oil steam reforming system. A multi-zone steam generator using waste heat has been proposed, which can produce the heat source and steam source of the hydrogen system. The DEM model of the multi-zone steam generator was set up. The model has been used to investigate the effects of particle sizes (40 mm–80 mm). With increasing particle size, the flow index and the flow uniformity gradually decrease, the vertical velocity gradient increases in the area on both side with the zone steam generator, and the vertical velocity fluctuation amplitude gradually increases. So, the hydrogen production decreases from the particle size increasing.     

Effect of excess hydrogen on hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine under full load

Detailed hydrogen-air chemical reaction mechanisms were coupled with three dimension grids of an experimental hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine (HICE) to establish a combustion model based on CONVERGE software. The influence of excess hydrogen coefficient on the combustion and emission characteristics of HICE under full load was studied based on the CFD model. Simulation results showed that excess hydrogen leaded to higher concentration of OH species in flame front, and quicker hydrogen-oxygen reaction and flame propagation speed, which in turn leaded to higher pressure and temperature in cylinder. The rise of pressure and temperature in turn contributed to the increase of indicate power but un-burned hydrogen leaded to decrease of efficiency. NOx, especially NO emissions decreased significantly with excess hydrogen under full load not only because increased of H concentration, and decreased of O and OH concentration, which leaded to reverse reaction of NO formation through thermal NO routes. Low excess hydrogen coefficient can achieve a good trade-off between power and emissions under full load.     

Effect of altering combustion air flow on a steam power plant: energy and exergy analysis

Energy and exergy analyses were previously performed by the authors of a coal-fired steam power plant. These analyses suggest that the steam generator (and its combustion and heat-transfer processes) is the most inefficient plant device and that significant increases in overall plant efficiency are possible by reducing steam-generator irreversibilities. Here, a possible plant alteration is examined to increase the efficiency of the plant by reducing the irreversibility rate in the steam generator. The modification involves decreasing the fraction of excess combustion air from 0.40 to 0.15. The results show that overall-plant energy and exergy efficiencies both increase by 1.4% when the fraction of excess combustion air decreases from 0.4 to 0.15.Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diagnosis and control of abnormal combustion of hydrogen internal combustion engine based on the hydrogen injection parameters

In order to improve the limitation of evaluating the abnormal combustion problem of hydrogen internal combustion engine by single index, the abnormal combustion risk coefficient is proposed and defined based on AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process)-entropy method. The abnormal combustion risk of PFI hydrogen internal combustion engine is comprehensively evaluated from multiple indexes such as the uniformity coefficient of the mixture, the temperature of the hot area, the maximum temperature rise rate, the residual amount of hydrogen in the intake port and the cylinder temperature at the end of the exhaust. The influence of hydrogen injection parameters on abnormal combustion was explored. The results show that the temperature and the maximum temperature rise rate in the hot area decrease first and then increase with the increase of hydrogen injection angle and hydrogen injection flow rate. Although large hydrogen injection angle and hydrogen injection flow rate can reduce the cylinder temperature at the end of exhaust, they will increase the residual hydrogen amount in the intake port. Appropriate hydrogen injection angle and hydrogen injection flow scheme can ensure that all parameters are at a better level, so that the risk coefficient of abnormal combustion decreases by 2.1%–5.5%, and the possibility of abnormal combustion is reduced.     

Effects of particle sizes on performances of the horizontally buried-pipe steam generator using waste heat in a bioethanol steam reforming hydrogen production system

The discrete element geometric model of the horizontally buried-pipe steam generator was set up. The effects of particle size (20 mm–80 mm) on performances of the horizontally buried-pipe steam generator using waste heat in a bioethanol steam reforming hydrogen production system was studied. When the particle size increases, the particle layer flatness decreases, the particle layer flow ununiformity increases. The volatility of the particle residence time distribution increases with the particle size increases, and the standard deviation of the particle residence time increases. When the particle size increases, the voidage of the particle system increases. So the particle thermal resistance in the steam generator increases with the particle size increases, the steam production of the generator decreases, and the system hydrogen production of decreases.     

Development and operation of alternative oxygen electrode materials for hydrogen production by high temperature steam electrolysis

High temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE) is one of the most promising ways for hydrogen mass production. To make this technology suitable from an economical point of view, each component of the system has to be optimized, from the balance of plant to the single solid oxide electrolysis cell. At this level, the optimization of the oxygen electrode is of particular interest since it contributes to a large extent to the cell polarization resistance. The present paper is focused on alternative oxygen electrode materials with improved performances compared to the usual ones mainly based on perovskite structure. Two nickelates, with compositions La₂NiO_4+δ and Nd₂NiO_4+δ are investigated and evaluated in HTSE operation at the button cell level. The performances of the Ln₂NiO_4+δ - containing cells (Ln = La, Nd) is improved compared to a cell containing the classical Sr-doped LaMnO₃ (LSM) perovskite oxygen electrode showing that nickelates are promising candidates for HTSE oxygen electrodes, especially for operation below 800 °C. Indeed, current densities determined at 1.3 V are 1.1 times larger for the La₂NiO_4+δ - containing cell and 1.6 times larger for the Nd₂NiO_4+δ one compared to the LSM - containing cell at 850 °C, whereas at 750 °C they are 1.8 and 4.4 times larger, respectively. Thanks to the use of a reference electrode, by coupling impedance spectroscopy and polarization measurements, the overpotential of each working electrode is deconvoluted from the complete cell voltage under HTSE operating conditions.     

Production of hydrogen by ethanol steam reforming over nickel–metal oxide catalysts prepared via urea–nitrate combustion method

A series of Ni/MgO catalysts have been prepared by a urea–nitrate combustion method, studied for the ethanol steam reforming, and compared with Ni/ZnO and Ni/Al₂O₃. The results show that Ni/MgO is superior to the latter two types of catalysts, especially in terms of H₂ yield. Influential factors, including Ni loading, temperature, water‐to‐ethanol molar ratio, and liquid hourly space velocity, are investigated with the Ni/MgO catalyst. The conversions are always complete at temperatures above 773 K, regardless of the changes of the other reaction conditions. The hydrogen yield increases with increasing temperature and H₂O/C₂H₅OH molar ratios, with up to 75% being obtained at 873 K, liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) of 5.0 ml g^–1 h^–1 and H₂O/C₂H₅OH molar ratio of 10. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental study on diffusion combustion of high-speed hydrogen round microjets

Experimental data on the phenomenon of nozzle choking at diffusion combustion of a high-speed hydrogen microjet at its ignition close to the nozzle are presented. As is found, such a phenomenon is due to the nozzle heating by the «bottleneck flame region» which is generated at the origin of microjet. This flow region persists up to transonic velocities of the microjet preventing from cooling of the nozzle and the transition to supersonic speed. In the case of hydrogen ignition far from the nozzle exit in supersonic conditions, the «bottleneck flame region» is suppressed, the flame becomes detached from the nozzle which is no longer heated so that the supersonic range is attained. The subsonic combustion of hydrogen microjet is stabilized by the «bottleneck flame region» while the supersonic one becomes more stable at the generation of shock cells. The results of the present study provide new details on the combustion of hydrogen microjets and could by useful for the operation of different burners.     

Influence of the heat recovery steam generator design parameters on the thermoeconomic performances of combined cycle gas turbine power plants

This paper proposes a methodology to identify the most relevant design parameters that impact on the thermal efficiency and the economic results of combined cycle gas turbine power plants. The analysis focuses on the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) design and more specifically on those operating parameters that have a direct influence on the economic results of the power plant. These results are obtained both at full and part load conditions using a dedicated code capable of simulating a wide number of different plant configurations. Two different thermoeconomic models aimed to select the best design point are proposed and compared: the first one analyzes the generating cost of the energy while the second one analyzes the annual cash flow of the plant. Their objective is to determine whether an increase in the investment in order to improve the thermal efficiency is worth from an economic point of view. Both models and the different HRSG configurations analysed are compared in the results section. Some parametric analysis show how the design parameters might be varied in order to improve the power plant efficiency or the economic results. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental results of the study of underburned hydrogen during burning in oxygen medium

The area of research is the experimental study of the composition of steam as a result of the combustion of hydrogen in an oxygen atmosphere in order to assess the underburning of hydrogen. The existing experience of experimental research on the combustion of hydrogen in an oxygen atmosphere is analyzed. Among the known works, the underburning of hydrogen was determined after mixing the dissociated vapor with a cooling component, which contributes to its sharp decrease in temperature. As a result, this leads to a decrease in the number of recombinations of unreacted hydrogen towards the formation of steam, which leads to an increased content of hydrogen in the steam. A large number of works are devoted to the combustion of various types of fuel with hydrogen additives in internal combustion engines in a number of European and Asian countries.The purpose of the article is to supplement and summarize a series of experiments on the study of hydrogen underburning when burning in an oxygen atmosphere without using a cooling component for mixing with combustion products (water vapor). Only external cooling of the flame tube of the experimental setup was used. This experiment was performed for the first time. For the conditions of experiments carried out by the authors of the article, a diagram, components and measuring instruments of the experimental setup are presented. The initial data on the pressure and temperature of hydrogen, oxygen, cooling water are given. The main expressions of the procedure for determining the underburning of hydrogen are given. The main results of experimental measurements are presented. The graphical results of measuring the steam temperature along the length of the flame tube of the experimental setup, the flow rates of hydrogen and oxygen, the temperature and flow rate of cooling water, the pressure inside the flame tube and in the steam extraction pipeline for chemical analysis are shown. On the basis of generalization of a series of experiments, an exponential character of the decrease in the underburning of hydrogen along the length of the flame tube of the experimental setup was obtained, which indicates the intense processes of hydrogen recombination towards the formation of steam. It was found that during the time of 0.069 s with the movement of dissociated steam inside a flame tube 980 mm long, the underburning of hydrogen decreases from 5.85 to 0.016% of the mass during stoichiometric combustion and to 0.0138% of the mass with an excess of the oxidant equal to 1.4.     

载氧体几何结构对固定床化学链燃烧影响的实验研究

使用浸渍法制备了球形与拉西环两种内扩散性能不同的铜基载氧体颗粒,在小型固定床反应器上进行了甲烷化学链燃烧实验,分析了球形与拉西环载氧体颗粒在还原反应与氧化反应中的最大温升及所需时间。结果表明：在还原反应中,甲烷进气流量能同时对拉西环载氧体的反应速率与最大温升产生影响,在总流量较大时有必要控制甲烷与氮气进气流量比;在氧化反应中,拉西环载氧体最大温升高于球形载氧体,反应温度的增大对拉西环载氧体最大温升的提升效果优于球形载氧体。     

Effect of the vacancy close to heat exchange wall on the heat transfer performance of the solid particles steam generator using waste heat in a methanol steam reforming hydrogen production system

With the massive consumption of fossil fuels and it resulted in significant carbon emissions, it is urgent to find an alternative clean energy source. Hydrogen has been regarded as one of the most promising energy candidates for the next generation. It is a great approach that methane steam reforming for hydrogen production by rational utilization of industrial waste heat, which significantly minimizes carbon emissions and develops methanol steam reforming technology. A solid particle steam generator based on the primary heat exchange method has been proposed, which can provide the heat and steam in the methanol steam reforming hydrogen production system. The quasi-two-dimensional packing heat transfer model of solid particles steam generator was set up.The effect of distance change between the vacancy and the cold wall and distance change between vacancies on heat transfer performance of the steam generator and hydrogen production capacity were studied. As the distance between the vacancy and the wall increases, the heat transfer performance of the steam generator gradually deteriorates, so the steam production of the steam generator decreases, and the system's hydrogen production capacity is reduced, the maximum of the heat flux and the minimum of the apparent thermal resistance are 34.67 kW/m² and 12.02 K/W, respectively. As the distance between vacancies increases, the heat transfer performance of the steam generator is gradually optimized slightly. To maintain the hydrogen production capacity, vacancies should be avoided to appear 2 layers of particles away from the heat exchange wall in the particles steam generator. From the results of the study, the farther the distance between vacancies, the better the steam production and hydrogen production capacity.     

Enhanced combustion by jet ignition in a turbocharged cryogenic port fuel injected hydrogen engine

The Hydrogen Assisted Jet Ignition (HAJI) is a physico-chemical combustion enhancement system developed at the University of Melbourne. Jet ignition can ignite ultra-lean air/fuel mixtures which are far beyond the stable ignition limit of a spark plug. Jet ignition may further enhance the combustion properties of hydrogen enabling the development of a diesel-like, almost throttle-less, control of load by quantity of fuel injected for higher thermal efficiencies all over the range of loads. The object of this paper is to show the benefits of jet ignition and present the latest results obtained on a four cylinder engine having the jet ignition coupled with cryogenic hydrogen injection and turbo charging.     

Backfire control and power enhancement of a hydrogen internal combustion engine

Frequent backfire can occur in inlet port fuel injection hydrogen internal combustion engines (HICEs) when the equivalence fuel–air ratio is larger than 0.56, thus limiting further enhancement of engine power. Thus, to control backfire, an inlet port fuel injection HICE test system and a computational fluid dynamics model are established to explore the factors that cause backfire under high loads. The temperature and the concentration of the gas mixture near the intake valves are among the essential factors that result in backfire. Optimizing the timing and pressure of hydrogen injection reduces the concentration distribution of the intake mixture and the temperature of the high-concentration mixture through the inlet valve, thus allowing control of backfire. Controlling backfire enables a HICE to work normally at high equivalence fuel–air ratio (even beyond 1.0). A HICE with optimized hydrogen injection timing and pressure demonstrates significant enhancement of the power output.     

Increasing the power output of hydrogen internal combustion engines by means of supercharging and exhaust gas recirculation

Spark ignition engines can be relatively easily converted to hydrogen using port fuel injection (PFI). However, because of the lower volumetric energy density of a hydrogen–air mixture and the occurrence of abnormal combustion phenomena such as backfire, hydrogen-fueled PFI engines suffer from a power deficit in comparison with gasoline engines. This paper reports measurements on a single-cylinder hydrogen engine equipped with a supercharger and an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system. Using EGR combined with supercharging and a three-way catalyst (TWC) is shown to significantly increase the power output while limiting tailpipe emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NO_x).     

Characteristics of heat transfer inside a tube during sodium‐water reaction in a FBR steam generator

Sodium reacts chemically with water in the case of an unexpected tube failure of a steam generator (SG) in a fast breeder reactor (FBR). In order to predict the event with high accuracy, it is very important to understand the characteristics of heat transfer inside the tube in detail during the tube failure due to the sodium–water reaction. Experiments were performed by using purified water under the following conditions: initial pressure of 11.2–13.4 MPa, initial water temperature of 200 °C, and water mass flux of 45.7 to 3630 kg/(m²s). The test tube was heated rapidly by high‐frequency induction current. The time averaged heat flux was estimated by using an inverse solution from the measured temperatures at two points on three different locations along the tube. It was confirmed that the derived values agreed with the measured heat fluxes on the outer surface within 20% accuracy. It was found that the characteristics of the heat transfer strongly depend on the flow rate. The heat transfer on the wall changed from nucleate boiling to transient‐film boiling during increasing the heat flux and returned to the nucleate boiling during decreasing the heat flux. A counterclockwise cycle always appeared in the transition boiling region, where the nucleate and film boiling coexisted and the area ratio of these varied with time. The adequacy of heat transfer correlations to evaluate tube overheating was confirmed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20320