Technical Paper
Ammonia Plus Hydrogen as Fuel in a S.I. Engine: Experimental Results
2012-10-23
2012-32-0019
Storing hydrogen is one of the major problems concerning its utilization on board vehicles. Today hydrogen can be compressed and stored at 200 or 350 bar (it is foreseen that in a near future storage pressure will reach 700 bar, according to new expected regulations and using tanks in composite materials) or cryogenically liquefied. An alternative solution is storing hydrogen in the form of ammonia that is liquid at roughly 9 bar at environmental temperature and therefore involves relatively small masses and volumes and requires light and low-cost tanks. Moreover, ammonia contains almost 18% hydrogen by mass and, by volume, liquid ammonia contains 1.7 times as much hydrogen as liquid hydrogen. It is well known that ammonia can be burned directly in I.C. engines, however a combustion promoter is necessary to support combustion especially in the case of high-speed S.I. engines.
