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During the last years natural gas is increasingly used as an alternative fuel for internal combustion engines, mainly because of the concern for the environment and the high gasoline prices. Natural gas can be stored by liquefaction, compression, or adsorption. When it is used in vehicles, natural gas is usually stored as compressed natural gas, (CNG), at pressures of about 20 MPa. Reducing the storage pressure is interesting as the energy necessary for compression is strongly reduced, the filling stations become less expensive and the necessary safety regulations are less stringent. With the adsorption of natural gas on activated carbon (ANG), the storage pressure is reduced to 5 MPa or less, and the designers get more freedom in tank design. In this paper, first an overview is given of the adsorption and desorption process and of the filling and emptying procedures of the tank. The equations of the isotherms are analysed and extended for multi component adsorption (guard bed).

Hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines (H₂ICEs) are an affordable, practical and efficient technology to introduce the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier. They are practical as they offer fuel flexibility, furthermore the specific properties of hydrogen (wide flammability limits, high flame speeds) enable a dedicated H₂ICE to reach high efficiencies, bettering hydrocarbon-fueled ICEs and approaching fuel cell efficiencies. The easiest way to introduce H₂ICE vehicles is through converting engines to bi-fuel operation by mounting a port fuel injection (PFI) system for hydrogen. However, for naturally aspirated engines this implies a large power penalty due to loss in volumetric efficiency and occurrence of abnormal combustion. The present paper reports measurements on a single-cylinder hydrogen PFI engine equipped with an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system and a supercharging set-up.