In an effort to limit human emissions of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, we may (in particular) want the fastest possible electrification of the global car fleet – this is legitimate.
On the other hand, it means forgetting the hundreds of millions of individuals or movers who cannot (yet) afford the leap to electricity – for economic reasons (battery prices go up), because vehicles do not exist yet, why the infrastructure is too underdevelopedWhy supply chains don’t follow.
In short, electricity immediately, for everyone, is a beautiful fantasy, but it is impossible to apply to our complex realities. Transitional solutions are therefore needed to safeguard the environment and stay as close as possible emission reduction targets déjà largely exceeded.
How reports Ars Technicathis is exactly what a team of scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia is proposing.
Note the consequences – under permanent debate – of diesel engines on the environment, researchers have managed to adapt old systems to inject hydrogen. Incidentally, and thanks to some results, they indicate that they have succeeded in reducing CO2 emissions2 of these engines by almost 90%, without causing those of nitrogen oxides (NOx), they too very harmful to the environment.
What the team led by Professor Shawn Kook it is a dual direct injection, dual fuel system – a hybrid engine or, in English and in the terms used in their own statementAnd «Hydrogen-diesel direct injection dual-fuel system». The text explains that it took scientists eighteen months to work on this adaptation, to obtain conventional diesel engines, but adapted to now run on a mixture composed of 90% hydrogen.
According to Shawn Kook and his colleagues, it’s a technical and environmental miracle. The efficiency of such an engine would be increased by 26%, while its carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 86%. “This new technology significantly reduces CO emissions2 existing engines, is written in the press release. So it could play an important role in reducing our carbon footprint, especially in Australia where mining, agriculture and other heavy industries use diesel extensively.
An engine within the engine
To use Ars Technica’s simple explanation, a diesel engine works thanks to injection fuel in a chamber, then when it is turned on, which creates the pressure necessary to set in motion the piston and, subsequently, the entire vehicle.
Directly replacing diesel fuel with hydrogen in the combustion chamber poses a problem: it generates amount of nitrogen oxides too big for the engine to be viable as it is.
The solution from Shawn Kook’s team relies on a hydrogen injection system, which is in turn integrated into the diesel injection system, and whose action is ultimately controlled to produce a more efficient and cleaner explosion, by precisely regulating the timing and location of combustion of hydrogen.
“We have shown that if you run it in a stratified way, i.e. with more hydrogen in some places and less in others, you can reduce NOx emissions.x so that they are lower than those of a pure diesel engine.
power so “Modernization” the relatively simple conversion of older diesel engines into more efficient and cleaner cars could actually have a major effect on environmental protection. This could prove complex for individual vehicle engines, but as the scientists explain, they are far from the only consumers of diesel.
Ars Technica also notes it 26,000 trains run on diesel in the United States (this also applies to 20% of the locomotives in France in 2020) and going electric could take a few long years. Millions of heavy trucks around the world are also dependent on dirty diesel. Investing in the transformation of their engines could certainly be expensive in the short term, but quickly beneficial to the environment.
The question of fuel remains: hydrogen can be “green” if it is produced using renewable energies which in themselves do not emit greenhouse gases. Which is still far from always being like this despite heavy investment going in this direction. Other avenues, such as a connecting rod with a particular design, are being studied to give a second life to combustion engines: oil has certainly not said the last word.
