Engineers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) say they have successfully modified a conventional Diesel engine to use a mix of hydrogen and a small amount of diesel, claiming their patented technology has cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by more than 85%:
About 90% of fuel in the UNSW hybrid diesel engine is hydrogen but it must be applied in a carefully calibrated way. If the hydrogen is not introduced into the fuel mix at the right moment “it will create something that is explosive that will burn out the whole system,” Prof Kook explains.
He says that studies have shown that controlling the mixture of hydrogen and air inside the cylinder of the engine can help negate harmful nitrogen oxide emissions, which have been an obstacle to the commercialisation of hydrogen motors.
The Sydney research team believes that any diesel trucks and power equipment in the mining, transportation and agriculture sectors could be retrofitted with the new hybrid system in just a couple of months.
Prof Kook doubts the hybrid would be of much interest in the car industry though, where electric and hybrid vehicles are already advanced and replacing diesel cars.
However, he says Australia’s multibillion-dollar mining industry needs a solution for all its diesel-powered equipment as soon as possible.
Mining, transportation and agriculture are of course the proper industry sectors for equipment that needs to be highly tuned or it will burn itself out (best case).
And hydrogen magically appears whenever needed.
This will never do. The “Environmental Activists” want to get rid of private cars and freedom to travel, not actually cut carbon emissions. Watch them oppose developments like this with all their might, just like they do with nuclear power.
There seem to be a lot more press releases about things that can *use* hydrogen than about things that can *generate* hydrogen with high energy conversion efficiency AND reasonable capital cost.
In college in the 1960s as a Chem Major learned that Hydrogen was impossible to contain and it embrittled materials trying to contain it. Nasty stuff to base an energy economy upon, no?
Dan Kurt