The Heavy-Duty Hydrogen Engine and its Realization until 2025

Authors

Dipl.-Ing. R. Dreisbach, Dipl.-Ing. A. Arnberger, Dipl.-Ing. A. Zukancic, Dipl.-Ing. M. Wieser, N. Kunder MSc, Dr.-Ing. M. Plettenberg, Ing. Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Dipl.-Ing. B. Raser, AVL List GmbH, Graz; Univ.-Prof. Dr. H. Eichlseder, Graz University of Technology:

Year

2021

Print Info

Production/Publication ÖVK

Summary

European Union requires, based on the “Green Deal”, a mandatory CO₂-reduction target for heavy commercial vehicles of 15 % respectively 30 % in the year 2025 and 2030. Target of the commercial vehicle industry is to develop technologies and solutions, which allow a robust target achievement in a technological as well as timely manner. The required technology mix will comprise of a fuel consumption reduction on the currently dominant diesel-based powertrain and of a certain penetration rate of alternative, per definition CO₂ neutral, energy carriers. These will contain the direct usage of electricity as well as of hydrogen as energy carrier. The hydrogen internal combustion engine offers, in comparison to a fuel cell, concrete advantages in view of maintaining of the value creation chain and protection of powertrain and vehicle related investments in production facilities. Considering the preservation of base engine and powertrain components, as well as the avoidance of a fully electric vehicle configuration, the hydrogen combustion engine inevitably is the bridge technology towards fuel cells. The hydrogen engine concepts that have been published in the recent history show weaknesses in view of performance, dynamic and fuel consumption and therefore are not competitive against existing aggregates like diesel or natural gas engines, nor against fuel cell powertrains. In this paper, the required steps will be demonstrated which are required, to solve the current conflict of objectives in order to establish the hydrogen internal combustion engine as a short-term available CO₂-neutral powertrain technology for heavy-duty commercial vehicles and to illustrate the potential of this powertrain concept.

Number of pages

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