Hydrogen Combustion Finding Favor

by TTAC News Staff

Published: August 5th, 2024

Cummins Fuel Agnostic testing facility.

Volvo and MAN, among other major truck manufacturers, are developing hydrogen combustion engines as a low-emission alternative to diesel.

Reuters reports this approach aims to use existing production lines, providing a quicker and cheaper path toward reducing emissions. The industry faces challenges with battery-electric trucks, which are too heavy for long-haul freight and take a long time to charge, while hydrogen fuel cells, although lighter, require new vehicle systems.

MAN plans to test around 200 hydrogen-powered trucks with European customers next year, while Volvo aims to start customer trials in 2026. Hydrogen combustion engines can be integrated into existing manufacturing processes, preserving jobs and leveraging current infrastructure. Cummins is focusing on a fuel-agnostic engine family that share common components.

MAN's H45 hydrogen combustion engine is based on the D38 diesel engine

However, these engines can still produce emissions, requiring additional filtering. The need for larger pressurized hydrogen tanks also presents safety challenges. A significant obstacle is the limited availability of green hydrogen, which is necessary for the full transition to low-emission vehicles. Some manufacturers are considering using natural gas or biogas as interim solutions, which can later transition to hydrogen.

The European Union and the United States are funding the development of green hydrogen infrastructure, but progress is slow. Despite these challenges, hydrogen combustion engines offer an immediate step toward reducing emissions using familiar technology and existing production capabilities.

This article was co-written using AI and was then heavily edited and optimized by our editorial team.

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Macca on Aug 06, 2024
I work in the 'alternative fuels' business and I'm not 'anti'-hydrogen, but there are a lot of issues with hydrogen as an energy carrier as others have stated. As energy analyst Michael Sura put it, "hydrogen is a square wheel." Any way you approach it under current production methods (steam methane reforming, electrolysis or methane pyrolysis) you have to balance the energy source and its scalability versus input energy and production emissions abatement. The EU recently slashed their hydrogen production target for 2030 from 10 MM tpa to 3 MM as reality comes at you fast. Even the definitional boundaries are confounding. Look at Sweden and Norway for example, countries for which >95% of their electricity production comes from renewables. LCA for their CO2/kWh runs as high as 27 grams, which works out to 1.35 kg CO2/kg H2. The EU definition of 'green hydrogen' is <1 kg CO2/kg H2. Some solar farms have an LCA of 50 g CO2/kWh which yields 2.5 kg CO2/kg H2. An SMR is 9-10 kg/kg H2 - so these sources for electrolysis are 'good' on emissions but don't meet gov't standards? Stateside, green hydrogen can cost upwards of $5-7/kg whereas 'gray' (SMR) costs are $1-1.50/kg. CO2 capture from an SMR is relatively simple and the captured CO2 can even be put to good use in syngas-->e-fuel production instead of wasting it in sequestration. Methane pyrolysis is likely the best bet currently - especially those solutions with nominal electricity demand. They can operate as a carbon black plant with no CO2 emissions - but 'green' types just want to eschew natural gas at any cost. Grid demand is forecasted into oblivion with data centers and EPA regs are set to hamstring combined-cycle nat gas plants in 2033, and we think we can also go EV *and* use the grid for electrolysis?

1 Reply
Zerofoo on Aug 08, 2024
Hydrogen is a fool's errand. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but it never exists on its own. It is always attached to something else. Breaking Hydrogen free of that something else requires energy - often times quite a lot of energy. Most Hydrogen produced in the US comes from methane. That process requires less energy than the electrical decomposition of water. Hydrogen "fuel" isn't really a fuel, it's a Rube Goldberg battery. Furthermore, Hydrogen molecules are very tiny which means they sneak past tank seals and penetrate tank structures. This makes hydrogen difficult to store and transport. All of this while still having the carbon footprint of the source methane.

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