i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0

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Low-load hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel engine

operation e A combustion efficiency improvement
approach

Pavlos Dimitriou*, Taku Tsujimura, Yasumasa Suzuki

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Renewable Energy Research Center, 2-2-9
Machiikedai, Koriyama, Fukushima, 963-0298, Japan

article info abstract

Article history: Hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel operation can provide significant benefits to the performance
Received 20 February 2019 and carbon-based emissions formation of compression-ignition engines. The wide flam-
Received in revised form mability range of hydrogen allows engine operation at extremely low equivalence ratios
18 April 2019 while its high diffusivity and flame speed promote wide range combustion inside the
Accepted 19 April 2019 cylinder. Nonetheless, despite the excellent properties of hydrogen for internal combus-
Available online 15 May 2019 tion, unburned hydrogen emissions and poor combustion efficiency have been previously
observed at low-load conditions of compression ignition engines.
Keywords: The focus of the present study is to assess the effects of different engine operation and
Hydrogen diesel injection parameters on the combustion efficiency of a heavy-duty dual-fuel engine
Diesel while observing their interactions with the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and emissions
Dual-fuel formation of the engine. In an attempt to reduce the unburned hydrogen rates at the exhaust
Compression ignition engine of the engine, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and different diesel injection strategies were
Low-load implemented. Statistical methods were applied in this study to reduce the experimental time.
Taguchi The results show a strong connection between unburned hydrogen rates, combustion
and brake thermal efficiencies with the EGR rate. Higher EGR rates increase the intake
charge temperature and provide improved hydrogen combustion and fuel economy.
Operation of the dual-fuel engine at low-load with high EGR rate and slightly advanced
main diesel injection can deliver simultaneous benefits to most of the harmful emissions
and the BTE of the engine. Despite the efforts to achieve optimal engine operation at low
loads, the combustion efficiency for most of the tested cases was in the range of 90%. Thus,
increased hydrogen rates should be avoided as the benefits of the dual-fuel operation are
weak at low-load conditions.
© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

emissions. The high-energy content gas in a dual-fuel mode

Introduction results in an increased total fuel energy input with a lower
carbon content compared to the diesel-only operated engines.
Hydrogen fumigated dual-fuel engines benefit from high The introduction of hydrogen often leads to high in-
thermal efficiency and significant reductions in carbon-based cylinder pressures and improved combustion with low soot

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: p.dimitriou@aist.go.jp (P. Dimitriou).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.04.203
0360-3199/© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0
formation at medium to high engine loads due to the high
calorific value of the gas [1,2]. However, as a result of the
elevated in-cylinder pressures, an increase in the in-cylinder
temperature and operation within the high NOx formation
zone of the compression ignition (CI) engines is often
observed [3,4].
The control of NOx formation of a hydrogen-diesel dual-
fuel engine has attracted interest from many research groups.
Several combustion strategies have been explored in the past
in an attempt to address the issue of NOx increase when using
hydrogen as a secondary fuel. Exhaust gas recirculation is the
most common way of reducing the NOx emission of a dual-
fuel engine by reducing the oxygen concentration and
increasing the heat capacity of the intake charge [5e7]. How-
ever, oxygen reduction often leads to weak soot oxidation and
deteriorated engine efficiency [8]. Other techniques, such
controlling the combustion phasing by changing the diesel
injection pattern [9,10], changing the compression ratio of the
engine [11], implementing low-temperature combustion
strategies [12,13] or alternative to petroleum-diesel fuels
[14,15] have also been investigated and showed significant
effects to the combustion and emissions performance of the
dual-fuel engine.
Despite the high energy content of hydrogen gas, the
implementation of a high hydrogen energy share ratio at low
load operation may lead to a late start of combustion with
reduced peak pressure and low brake thermal efficiency
[16e18]. Suzuki et al. [19], Gatts et al. [20] and Dimitriou et al.
[21] are among the research groups who reported higher levels
of unburned hydrogen emissions at the exhaust of hydrogen
dual-fuel engines operating at a low load. According to the
authors, the poor fuel economy observed was due to the fail-
ure to initiate and support a sufficiently vigorous flame for the
complete combustion of the hydrogen gas trapped outside the
diesel spray plume [22]. This is because of the relatively slow
reaction progress due to the lower combustion rate. The poor
combustion performance has also been found to provide
relatively low exhaust gas temperatures, unsuitable for cata-
lytic applications or combined heat and power (CHP) systems.
As reported by Dimitriou et al. [23], the operation of the dual-
fuel engine in a CHP system with a hydrogen energy carrier
catalyst did not provide the required exhaust gas temperature
for the catalytic process of the energy carrier.
The NOx emission penalty is relatively small at a low load
operation compared to higher engine loads while a few
studies have reported a NOx emission reduction for low
hydrogen energy share ratios [24,25]. This NOx reduction is
most likely due to the decrease of the diesel fuel combusted
near the spray fringe, an area with close to the stoichiometric
air-fuel ratio for the low load operation [25]. Furthermore, the
emissions of NO2 and the NO2/NOx formation is enhanced at
low load operation as a result of the unburned hydrogen oxi-
disation which improves the NO to NO2 conversion [26].
It is evident from the literature that hydrogen fumigation at
low-load operation comes with low combustion efficiency (CE)
and poor fuel economy. To the authors' knowledge, although a
few studies have reported high unburned hydrogen rates at
low-load operation, none of the papers in the open literature
have provided a detailed overview or tried to resolve this issue.
This study attempts to address the issue of low hydrogen-
17049
diesel combustion efficiency at a low-load by monitoring the
engine's performance (i.e. combustion efficiency, unburned
fuel, exhaust gas temperature) under different airpath and fuel
injection strategies. The present research work investigates
the effects of EGR rate, diesel injection timing, pressure and
pilot fuel amount on the combustion performance of a dual-
fuel engine aiming at improving its combustion efficiency by
reducing the unburned hydrogen gas at the exhaust. Because
of the several variables involved in the analysis, statistical
methods such as Taguchi and analysis of variance (ANOVA)
were applied to reduce the tests number and experimental
timing. The paper is divided into five sections. After the
introduction, Section Experimental apparatus presents the
apparatus used in the experiments, followed by Section
Methodology which describes the methodology and applied
statistical tools. Section Results and discussion gives the re-
sults obtained for the dual-fuel engine and the statistical
analysis performed including validation and a post-injection
study for soot reduction. Finally, Section Conclusions con-
cludes the findings of this work.
Experimental apparatus
A 5.2L heavy-duty dual-fuel compression-ignition engine was
used for the experiments. The engine specifications are pre-
sented in Table 1 while an overview of the layout is given in
Fig. 1.
The speed of the engine (1500 rpm for all tests) was
controlled by an alternating current dynamometer which was
also used to measure the brake torque and calculate the power
output. The engine was fitted with a common rail direct in-
jection system while the hydrogen gas was supplied upstream
the intake manifold by gas cylinders at a regulated pressure of
4 bar (gauge). A gas mixer was placed between the hydrogen
induction point and the intake manifold to increase the
hydrogen-air homogeneity of the intake charge and promote
an even hydrogen distribution among the cylinders. The main
properties of the fuels used in this study are presented in
Table 2.
A variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) and an intercooler
were used for boosting and cooling the intake charge. A high-
pressure EGR system with a cooler was adopted to deliver part
of the exhaust gases upstream the turbine to the intake
manifold of the engine. The air mass flow of the engine was
measured using a laminar flow meter while all cylinders were
equipped with high-sensitivity in-cylinder pressure sensors.
The in-cylinder pressure signals were acquired to evaluate the
combustion pressure and calculate the average rate (over 100
consecutive cycles) of heat release.
Table 1 e Engine specifications.
Engine type Inline four cylinder
Displacement volume (L) 5.2
Bore x stroke (mm) 115
125
Compression ratio 17.5:1
Gaseous fuel Hydrogen (port injection)
Liquid fuel Diesel (direct injection)
17050 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0

Fig. 1 e Schematic of the heavy-duty dual-fuel engine.

Three emission analysers were employed to measure the (BEST SOKKI, BOB-2000FT), which provided a detailed analysis
exhaust gas emissions output such as CO2, CO, HC, NOx, O2 of the exhaust gas constituents. The FTIR system was coupled
(HORIBA, MEXA-ONE) and soot (AVL483). The third emission to a hydrogen sensor for obtaining the unburned hydrogen gas
analyser was a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), rates at the exhaust side of the engine.
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Since the EGR level is the most important parameter (among

Table 2 e Main properties of diesel and hydrogen. Data
those varied in this study) affecting the engine's equivalence
taken from Refs. [22,27].
ratio, the hydrogen, diesel and global equivalence ratios
Property Unit Diesel Hydrogen
segmented by the EGR rate are listed in Table 4 while the
3
Density at 1 bar and 300 K (kg/m ) 832 0.0838 definition of equivalence ratio is provided in Equation (2).
Lower heating value (LHV) (MJ/kg) 43 120 Because of the high number of possible combinations, the
Autoignition temperature (K) 473 858
Taguchi method was implemented to determine the most
Flammability limits (%) e 0.2e7
Flame velocity (F ¼ 1) (cm/s) 30 250e350
appropriate combination of factors and reduce the experi-
Minimum ignition energy (mJ) e 0.02 mental time.
Carbon content (mass fraction) % 86 0
AFRstoich
F¼ x
(2)
AFRx
where AFR refers to the air-to-fuel ratio of x fuel (i.e. hydrogen,
Methodology diesel). The superscript stoich stands for the stoichiometric
air-to-fuel ratio of each fuel given in Table 2.
Hydrogen was incrementally introduced at the intake side of The Taguchi method is a powerful and efficient approach
the dual-fuel engine on an energy share ratio basis (Equational to optimising the quality of manufactured products. The
1). In this paper, engine operation at 1,500 rpm and 20 kW method is also applied for tuning experimental parameters in
power output is performed. The first part (Section Hydrogen- a smaller number of trials by using orthogonal arrays and
diesel operation at low-load) involves engine operation with statistical tools to evaluate the experimental data [28]. The
hydrogen energy ratios from 0% (diesel-only) up to around present study uses an L25 orthogonal array considering the
80%. In the second part (Section Optimization analysis), an four parameters (factors) and their five different levels (Table
optimisation study is conducted for hydrogen energy share A1 in Appendxi A). The L25 orthogonal array consists of 25
ratios of approximately 45% aiming at reducing the NOx and cases which have been repeated twice (trials) for calculating
unburned H2 emissions. Finally, Section Post-injection the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. The S/N ratio evaluates the
analysis presents a post-injection analysis for controlling the stability of performance of an output characteristic and is
soot formation of the engine. defined as:
_ H2 !
m_ H2 LVH 1 Xn
1
RH2 ¼ 100 (1) S = N ratio ¼ 10log (3)
mH2 LVHH2 þ m_ D LVHD
_ n y2i
i¼1
where m_ H2 and mD denote the mass flow rate of hydrogen and
where yi is the value of the quality characteristic measured
diesel respectively while LHV stands for the lower heating
from the trial and n is the test number.
values of the two fuels.
The analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical model was
The optimisation study, in Section Optimization analysis,
later implemented to analyse the differences among the ob-
investigates the effects of the following four engine parame-
tained data and understand the dependence of each of the
ters on the combustion performance of the heavy-duty dual-
parameters on the unburned hydrogen, exhaust gas temper-
fuel engine running at low-load conditions (20 kW power
ature, NOx and soot emissions. The analysis was performed
output).
using the Minitab 18 software.
To analyse the engine performance, the combustion effi-
1. Exhaust gas recirculation (%)
ciency was calculated using the following equations.
2. Main diesel injection timing (oCA BTDC, crank angle before
top dead centre) 1 h
hc ¼
Q_ diesel f100  RUC ðCOÞ  RUC ðTHCÞ
3. Pilot diesel injection quantity (mm3/stroke) Q_ diesel þ Q_ H2
4. Diesel injection pressure (bar) i
 RUC ðSootÞg þ Q_ H2 f100  RUC ðH2 Þg (4)

Each of the above parameters was incrementally varied at

five different levels, Table 3. The minimum pilot injection mC ðCO Þ
RUC ðCOÞ ¼ 100
atom
 ex  (5)
quantity was set to 2 mm3 as lower values led to misfiring for mC atom DFinj
some of the cases. The EGR rate was ranged from 0 to 32%.

Table 3 e Process parameters and their levels.

Symbol Parameter Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
A EGR (%) 0 8 16 24 32
B Main injection timinga (oCA BTDC) 10 5 0 5 10
C Pilot injection quantity (mm3) 2 3 4 5 6
D Injection pressure (bar) 700 800 900 1000 1100
a
Signal timing without considering the injection delay.
17052 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0

Table 4 e Hydrogen, diesel and global equivalence ratios of the tested conditions segmented by the applied EGR rate.
EGR level (%) Equivalence ratio of diesel Equivalence ratio of hydrogen Global Equivalence ratio
0 0.18 0.10e0.12 0.28e0.29
8 0.19e0.22 0.12e0.13 0.31e0.35
16 0.22e0.25 0.14e0.16 0.37e0.41
24 0.25e0.28 0.16e0.18 0.42e0.46
32 0.27e0.31 0.19e0.20 0.44e0.50

from Fig. 2 that the introduction of the gaseous fuel led to a

mC atom ðTHUex Þ significant reduction of the engine's brake thermal efficiency.
RUC ðTHUÞ ¼ 100
  (6)
mC atom DFinj The decline in BTE is proportional to the decrease in the
combustion efficiency caused by the increase of the unburned
mC atom ðSootex Þ hydrogen rates at the exhaust of the engine. The case with
RUC ðSootÞ ¼ 100
  (7)
mC atom DFinj around 45% of hydrogen energy share ratio showed the
highest brake specific unburned hydrogen gas rates (37% mass
mH ðH2ex Þ fraction of the total introduced hydrogen). The findings of this
RUC ðH2 Þ ¼ 100
atom
(8) study are in agreement with the literature where poor brake
mH atom ðH2im Þ
thermal efficiency is reported for low-load hydrogen-diesel
where. dual-fuel operation [19e21]. The high hydrogen concentration
at the exhaust of the engine could the result of the following
RUC ðiÞ is the proportion of unburned component i on three reasons:
injected fuel, i: CO, THC, Soot or H2
mj atom is the mass of atom j contained in species k 1. A long valve overlap period forcing hydrogen out of the
j: C or H, k: CO, THC, Diesel Fuel (DF) or H2 cylinder before the combustion starts
ex, Exhaust gas (subscript), inj, Injected fuel (subscript), im,
Intake manifold (subscript)

The post-injection analysis, Section Post-injection

analysis, was performed for the two cases with the optimal
NOx and unburned H2 emissions. A third additional post-
injection (pilot þ reduced main þ post) is applied to reduce
the elevated soot formation of the engine (resulted by the
introduction of EGR). The post-injection quantity and dwell
angle (angle between the end of the main injection and the
start of the post-injection) setting parameters are shown in
Table 5, while the pilot injection quantity, timing and main
injection timing remained constant.

Results and discussion

Hydrogen-diesel operation at low-load
The combustion and brake thermal efficiency of the investi-
gated dual-fuel engine for different hydrogen energy share
ratios at a power rate of 20 kW has been compared against the
conventional diesel-only operation without EGR. It is clear
Fig. 2 e CE, BTE and uH2 rates of the conventional diesel
and dual-fuel engine for different hydrogen energy share
ratios (The global equivalence ratio was approximately
0.28 for all cases while the hydrogen equivalence ratio was
0, 0.065,0.107, 0.152 and 0.192 respectively).

Table 5 e Post-injection setting parameters.

Pilot Main Post
Injection amount Fixed ¼ (Baselinea e Post) 3, 6, 9 (mm3/stroke)
Start of injection Fixed Fixed ¼ (End of main þ Dwell angle)
Dwell angleb e Fixed 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 (deg. CA)
a
Refers to the cases with similar hydrogen energy share ratio, pilot injection quantity, EGR rate, and the start of the main injection but with a
double injection strategy (pilot þ main).
b
Dwell angle of main refers to the time between the end of the pilot injection and the start of main while dwell angle of the post is the time
between the end of the main injection to the start of the post-injection.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0
2. Hydrogen generation a by-product of the diesel combus-
tion [29].
3. Unburned hydrogen due to the relatively cold conditions
Considering that a long valve overlap does not occur for
this engine and the fact that unburned hydrogen readings
occur only for low-load conditions then the first assumption
can be eliminated. Moreover, as the operation of the engine
with diesel fuel only did not provide any hydrogen readings at
the exhaust of the engine (not detectable by the analyser) for
any of the operating conditions can also exclude the second
possible reason mentioned above. Therefore, this confirms
that the hydrogen detected at the exhaust side of the engine is
purely unburned hydrogen supplied from the gas cylinders
and escaped the combustion zone within the cylinder. The
relatively cold conditions of low-load operation do not favour
the combustion of hydrogen trapped outside the diesel spray
plume. Despite the high flame propagation of hydrogen at
stoichiometric conditions, the lean operation and low in-
cylinder temperature result in relatively low laminar flame
speed that cannot promote the combustion of hydrogen
within the whole range of the combustion chamber [30].
Fig. 3 compares the emissions behaviour of the engine at
different hydrogen energy share ratios against the single
diesel fuel operation. As expected, CO and THC were signif-
icantly reduced for the dual-fuel operation. The improve-
ment increases with the increase of the hydrogen energy
share ratio due to the carbonless structure of the gaseous
fuel. Soot formation was increased with the introduction
of hydrogen as diesel was injected at an area of partial
hydrogen combustion caused by the pilot diesel injection.
Nevertheless, soot is reduced for the highest H2 energy share
ratio due to the small amount of main diesel injection. On
the other hand, NOx formation was increased for operation
Fig. 3 e NOx, soot, CO and THC emissions of the conventional diesel and dual-fuel engine for different hydrogen energy
share ratios.
17053
with low to mid-hydrogen energy share ratios despite the
drop in the combustion efficiency. Higher H2 energy share
ratios yielded a decrease in NOx formation. This is due to the
hydrogen fuel combusted by the pilot diesel fuel leading to
prolonged combustion with lower heat release rates than the
cases with lower hydrogen energy share ratios or diesel fuel
only (see Fig. 4).
Optimization analysis
The case with medium hydrogen energy share ratio (~45%)
and higher unburned hydrogen rates at the exhaust was
picked for further investigation and optimisation. The opti-
misation analysis section is divided into three parts. Section
Orthogonal array e Signal to noise ratios presents the results
of the orthogonal array analysis, followed by the analysis of
variance (ANOVA) in Section Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
and validation studies in Section Validation experiments.
Orthogonal array e signal to noise ratios
The signal to noise analysis was performed twice for different
response data (unburned H2 and NOx emission). Fig. 5 pre-
sents the S/N ratio for the unburned H2 and NOx emissions of
the engine. As a reduction of the unburned H2 and NOx for-
mation is the desirable performance, the optimal set of pa-
rameters is gived by the parameters' level providing the lowest
S/N ratio.
The results presented in Fig. 5 demonstrate that an
increased EGR rate is likely to have a positive effect on both
unburned hydrogen and NOx emissions. On the other hand,
main injection timing of diesel may have an adverse impact
on these two response outputs. The statistical significance of
the effects of each of the above factors on the monitored
outputs is confirmed by performing an analysis of variance.
17054 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0

Fig. 4 e In-cylinder pressure and heat release rate of the conventional diesel and dual-fuel engine for different hydrogen
energy share ratios.

Unburned H2 NOx
EGR rate (%) Main inj. timing (CA BTDC) Pilot inj. quantity (mm^3) Injection pressure (bar) EGR rate (%) Main inj. timing (CA BTDC) Pilot inj. quantity (mm^3) Injection pressure (bar)
23 17.5

22

15.0
21
Mean of SN ratios
Mean of SN ratios

20
12.5

19

18 10.0

17
7.5
16

15
5.0
0 8 16 24 32 -10 -5 0 5 10 2 3 4 5 6 700 800 900 1000 1100 0 8 16 24 32 -10 -5 0 5 10 2 3 4 5 6 700 800 900 1000 1100

Fig. 5 e Signal to Noise analysis for unburned hydrogen and NOx emissions.

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) the in-cylinder temperature and equivalence ratio, two
The analysis of variance was conducted to identify the most important parameters to improve the laminar flame speed
significant factors and their contribution to the response and promote combustion within a greater range of the com-
outputs. The F-value of the analysis determines whether the bustion chamber [31e33]. The data in Table 6 show that EGR is
parameters is associated with the response output with a also the most influential factor for the soot formation, but the
large F-value representing a close dependence between the relative high P-value (>0.05) indicates weak evidence against
response output and the parameter. On the other hand, the P- the null hypothesis. Finally, the post-turbine temperature is
value measures the evidence against the hypothesis with dominantly affected by the level of EGR rate.
lower probabilities providing stronger evidence against the Fig. 6 presents three contour plots of the effects of main
null hypothesis. Table 4 presents the obtained F- and P-values injection timing and EGR rate on unburned hydrogen, NOx
for the tested cases. and post-turbine temperature. As it is evident in the figure,
As shown in Table 6, EGR is the most influential factor for increasing the EGR rate has a positive effect on all three
unburned hydrogen followed by the main injection timing response parameters. However, this is not the case for the
while NOx emission is mostly affected by the injection timing main injection timing as an early injection shows a reduction
and less by the EGR rate. This is a reasonable outcome as the in the unburned hydrogen rates but an increase in NOx
introduction of high EGR rates can simultaneously increase emissions. This contradictory behaviour is expected as it is

Table 6 e Analysis of variance.

Parameter Unburned H2 NOx Soot Post-turbine temp.
F -value P-value F -value P-value F -value P-value F -value P-value
EGR (%) 5.86 0.003 2.27 0.0997 1.63 0.206 83.78 0
Main injection timing (oCA BTDC) 1.82 0.165 7.01 0.001 1.09 0.389 0.20 0.935
Pilot injection quantity (mm3) 0.62 0.654 0.12 0.972 0.6 0.665 0.02 1
Injection pressure (bar) 0.10 0.981 0.2 0.933 0.96 0.451 0.07 0.99
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0 17055

Fig. 6 e Contour plots showing the effects of main injection timing and EGR rate on unburned hydrogen, NOx and post-
turbine temperature.

most likely an improved combustion efficiency would raise affected by the injection timing, the maximum temperature is
the in-cylinder combustion temperatures. In spite the fact achieved for a combination of high EGR rate and late injection,
that post-turbine temperature seems not to be profoundly a condition that also provides the lowest NOx formation.

Fig. 7 e Values plots uH2 against different variables (CA ATDC, crank angle after top dead centre).
17056 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0

Fig. 7 presents the performance of several engine param-
eters and their dependence on the unburned hydrogen gas (x-
axis). It is clear that cases with advanced CA50, close to top
dead centre (TDC), lead to lower unburned hydrogen rates and
hence improved CE and BTE. Moreover, a clear trend is
observed with higher post-turbine temperatures for most of
the cases with low unburned hydrogen emissions. With
regards to the emissions formation, a positive trend is only
observed for the CO and TCH as a result of the improved
combustion efficiency.
Validation experiments
The optimal parameters for improving the combustion effi-
ciency of the engine while controlling NOx formation were
picked with the help of the data listed in the previous two
subsections. Two optimisation tests were carried out with the
first aiming at engine performance with a balance of low
unburned H2 and NOx emissions while the second was tar-
geting at achieving the lowest NOx formation possible. The
two optimisation cases were compared against the diesel-only
and baseline hydrogen-diesel (with the same H2 energy share
ratio) operations (Table 7).
Fig. 8 shows that Case 3 provided a 64% reduction of the
unburned H2 which translates to 7.2% (absolute) increase in
the BTE (24% relative) of the engine compared to the baseline
case. Despite the improved combustion of hydrogen, NOx
formation is reduced by 49% due to the introduction of EGR.
On the other hand, Case 4 shows the maximum reduction of
NOx by 73% while it comes with a 38% reduction of unburned
hydrogen and similar levels of BTE to the baseline dual-fuel
engine. The soot formation is deteriorated for both cases
compared to the diesel and dual-fuel baseline engine as a
result of the EGR ingestion. Case 3 also shows significantly
lower CO and THC emissions than the baseline engine while

Table 7 e Setting parameters for the four comparison cases.

Case EGR (%) Main injectiona (oCA BTDC) Pilot injection (mm3/stroke) Injection pressure (bar)
1. Diesel 0 5 3 900
2. Hydrogen/diesel baseline 0 5 3 900
3. Optimum for low uH2 and NOx 32 0 5 1100
4. Optimum for lowest NOx 32 10 2 700
a
Signal timing without considering the injection delay.

Fig. 8 e Comparison of engine performance of the four cases listed in Table 7 (1. Diesel; 2. Hydrogen/diesel baseline; 3. Optimum
for low uH2 and NOx; 4. Optimum for lowest NOx).
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0 17057

Fig. 9 e Soot emissions under different post-injection quantities and dwell angles for Case 3 and Case 4.

Fig. 10 e Engine performance for Case 3 and Case 4 with (6mm3/stroke) and without post-injection.
17058 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 4 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 1 7 0 4 8 e1 7 0 6 0
CO and THC of Case 4 are at the same levels as in the
dual-fuel engine.
Post-injection analysis
An improvement in NOx, CE and BTE was reported in the
previous section. However, soot formation was deteriorated
due to the introduction of EGR which reduces the oxygen
concentration within the cylinder chambers and hence exac-
erbate the soot oxidation. The current study is adopting a
post-injection, to identify the impact on soot formation and
other engine performance characteristics.
Fig. 9 shows the soot behaviour of Case 3 and Case 4 for
three different post-injection quantities under various dwell
angles. It is clear that both cases show a reduction of the soot
formation for dwell angles above 20 CA while the maximum
reduction occurs for cases with high post-injection quantities.
According to Arre gle et al. [34], the post-injection soot mech-
anism mainly works because of the decrease of the fuel
amount injected during the main injection and its corre-
sponding fuel-air equivalence ratio. Therefore, a sufficient
reduction of soot can only be achieved when a significant
amount of mass fuel is reduced from the main injection and is
injected far from the end of the main injection. However, the
soot emission formation of an engine is the result of a balance
between formation and oxidation processes. As observed in
Case 4, shows an extremely late post-injection is likely to
result in poor soot oxidation and hence deteriorate the total
soot levels.
The optimal balance between soot reduction and BTE
reduction was given for engine operation with post-injection
of 6mm3/stroke for both Case 3 and Case 4. Fig. 10 reveals the
combustion characteristics of all engine tests with a post-
injection of 6mm3/stroke. The CA50 of the engine delayed
compared to the double injection strategy. However, the
delay is the longest for dwell angles of 5 and 20 CA, two
conditions that also provide the lowest uH2 rates and
highest combustion efficiency. The CA50 delay, caused by
the addition of the post-injection, improved the NOx for-
mation of the engine and increased the post-turbine tem-
perature but deteriorated the BTE despite the CE
improvement for some of the cases. The BTE drop was ex-
pected as the post-injected fuel is subtracted from the main
injection taking place close to TDC. The addition of a post-
injection without subtracting fuel from the main injection
(extra amount of fuel) can resolve this issue but it will not
provide any soot emission benefits [34]. Finally, CO and THC
emissions are deteriorated due to incomplete post-injected
diesel fuel combustion.
Conclusions
The focus of this study is to assess the performance of a
hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel engine under low-load conditions.
Numerous studies in the open literature have reported
considerably high unburned hydrogen rates at the exhaust of
dual-fuel engines when running at relatively cold low-load
conditions. The present paper presents an approach to
reduce the unburned hydrogen rates and hence improve the
combustion and brake thermal efficiencies while considering
other parameters such as harmful emissions and exhaust-gas
temperature for catalytic operations. The study analyses the
effects of EGR rate and diesel injection characteristics with the
aid of statistical methods. The conclusions drawn are sum-
marised as follow:
 Hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel operation suffers from relatively
poor combustion efficiency at low-load conditions due to
high unburned hydrogen rates.
 Applying high rates of EGR and hence increasing the in-
cylinder combustion temperature was found to be the
optimal approach for improving the combustion efficiency
and reducing NOx emission. An early diesel main injection
could also contribute to combustion efficiency improve-
ment, but considerable injection advancements would
significantly deteriorate the NOx formation of the engine.
 Operation with high EGR rate and mild injection advance-
ment can result in low unburned hydrogen rates, NOx, CO
and THC while the engine's brake thermal efficiency is
improved compared to the diesel-only operation. However,
high EGR rates impose a soot formation penalty.
 Introducing a post-injection can control soot at levels
below the diesel-only operation and further reduce the
NOx formation. However, this comes with a penalty on
BTE, CO, TCH.
 The use of high EGR rates and post-injection is the optimal
method to increase the exhaust gas temperature. This is
relatively important for catalytic operations.
Despite the efforts to achieve operation with low unburned
hydrogen rates, the combustion efficiency was mostly in the
area of 90%. Although some cases achieved combustion effi-
ciency of up to 93%, the BTE was low as the combustion
phasing had to be delayed to regulate soot levels. Thus,
increased hydrogen rates should be avoided as the benefits of
the dual-fuel operation are weak at low-load conditions.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the technical staff of
the Hydrogen Energy Carrier Team for their support.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.04.203.
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