The H2-ICE demonstration vehicle was on display at the California Hydrogen Leadership Summit in Sacramento, this week, the SouthWest Research Institute reported. Earlier the SwRI storied haw they changed the engine and some parts of the truck.
Design & Conversion Overview
The Cummins X15N natural gas engine was selected as the base platform for the demonstration program because it required the fewest changes for hydrogen conversion. Some new components were required, but 90% of the existing engine parts and components were caried over from the base engine.
The H2-ICE engine conversion included a bespoke intake manifold (gold), specialized injectors, bespoke engine mounts and custom turbo solution (red).
Converting the engine to run on hydrogen required new hydrogen injectors which were integrated into the intake manifold for port injection. The boosting system was upgraded due to the increased airflow requirements for lean hydrogen combustion. Active crankcase ventilation was also added to avoid building up a combustible concentration of hydrogen in valve cover or oil sump. Finally, the ignition system was adapted for hydrogen combustion, and a new engine controller was installed. All the necessary components were provided by consortium members including:
- H2 Injection – PFI injectors by Bosch & Phinia
- Boosting – SuperTurbo (mechanically-driven)
- Crankcase Ventilation – Active blower system by MAHLE
- Ignition – Capacitive Discharge system by SEM
- Controls – Woodward OH6 engine controller & software
Vehicle Integration
Vehicle integration involved much more than just packaging the new engine and replacing the diesel saddle tanks with the Forvia 350 bar compressed hydrogen tanks. A new Allison 4000 series transmission better suited to the engine output was installed and the final drive ratios of the rear axles were also adjusted for optimal vehicle performance.
The Class-8 H2-ICE demonstration vehicle runs on hydrogen, offering near-zero CO2 emissions. SwRI helped convert the natural gas engine to run on hydrogen.
Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA) methodology was performed to ensure that the vehicle could be operated safely and reliably. Based on the findings from the FMEA, hydrogen sensors were placed in strategic location around the vehicle to detect leaks, and system start-up and shutdown procedures were developed and programmed into a new supervisory controller that interacts with each of the separate vehicle control modules.
Photo of SwRI
Press release https://shorturl.at/kYSbY
