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Converting diesel engines to run on hydrogen

How a new hydrogen-diesel engine is helping to decarbonise heavy industries in Australia and beyond.

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To significantly cut the CO2听emissions created by diesel engines, and help reduce Australia鈥檚 carbon footprint, a UNSW team led by Professor Shawn Kook, A/Professor Shaun Chan and Professor Evatt Hawkes has successfully developed a hydrogen-diesel direct injection dual-fuel technology, which allows diesel engines to run primarily on hydrogen. Rather than waiting decades for the development and application of a new fuel cell system, existing diesel engines can be retrofitted with the newly invented system 鈥 thereby allowing heavy industries to significantly cut their carbon dioxide emissions.

Hydrogen-Diesel Direct Injection Dual-Fuel System developed at UNSW.

The team spent years gaining fundamental knowledge before developing and testing the dual-fuel system, which has been proven to run using 90 percent hydrogen energy and 10 percent diesel as fuel 鈥 reducing CO2听emissions by up to 77 percent. Hydrogen is a new green fuel source produced from renewable feedstock and doesn鈥檛 produce CO2听when burnt.

鈥淲e wanted to accelerate decarbonisation across a range of hard to abate heavy industries such as mining and agriculture,鈥 explains Prof. Kook. 鈥淒iesel operators are required to reduce their CO2听emissions, and this is key for their operations 鈥 there鈥檚 desperate demand for it.鈥

This demand has been further fuelled by limited diesel alternatives, including the inability of these heavy industries to operate within the electric vehicles.

"They operate high uptime machines, which means the long charging time of battery electric vehicles poses a significant challenge, and hydrogen fuel cell needs to be significantly further developed before exposing it to harsh, heavy-duty applications.鈥

- Professor Shawn Kook

鈥淭he new technology converts existing diesel engines without the need to dispose of them, which provides a great practical benefit as there鈥檚 CO2reduction听with minimal action needed."

While the new technology maintains the original diesel injection, it adds a hydrogen fuel injection directly into the cylinder. The hydrogen-air charge is fully controlled before it is ignited by small volume of diesel flames 鈥 how exactly these need to be controlled was clearly understood through advanced diagnostics performed in optical facilities prior to the engine testing.

Beyond the lab

To help bring this technology to life, Prof. Kook and his UNSW team have been working closely with a start-up company, . Supported by the and , DeCarice is commercialising the new technology. 鈥淚nstead of keeping the research as just research, we鈥檝e been really active in bringing this out through a commercialisation vehicle,鈥 he explains. 鈥淲e think DeCarice is the best way to help us achieve this ambition and accelerate the de-carbonisation of the internal combustion engines.鈥

While Australia will be the first market Prof. Kook exposes the technology to, he also has plans to go out to international markets as soon as possible. 鈥淭his has to play out on an international scale,鈥 he explains. 鈥淎ustralia contributes to significant global CO2听emissions, but decarbonisation and implementation of the technology provides great engineering benefits for everyone.鈥

Currently, Prof. Kook is working alongside DeCarice in preparation for several, in-field demonstration projects. 鈥淲e have several demonstrator initiatives developed already,鈥 he adds. 鈥 is the industry partner who also works closely with us to scale the new technology for future mining applications.鈥

This collaboration is just one of many rewarding outcomes of Prof. Kook鈥檚 ongoing work. 鈥

鈥淚鈥檓 surrounded by great colleagues, students and many global industry partners. The Faculty of Engineering provides such a supportive environment.鈥澨

- Professor Shawn Kook

Co-founders of start-up DeCarice: Prof Shawn Kook, Goran Bozic.

Converting heavy machinery to hydrogen could mean big savings in CO2听emissions

Forward focused

Having accomplished the decarbonisation of existing diesel engines, the most immediate potential use for Prof. Kook鈥檚 research is within industrial locations such as construction, port, agriculture and mining sites. "Our staged approach is to impact Australian non-road diesel machines and then to scale up for on-road diesel engines and international markets to make a bigger impact.鈥

Researcher/s

Professor Shawn Kook | Associate Professor Shaun Chan | Professor Evatt Hawkes

Focus Area

Recycling Decarbonisation

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