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Hydrogen promises to provide some highly desired features for clean and efficient combustion, but harvesting efficiency and emission potentials as well as meeting engine durability requirements needs careful adaption of both, combustion system components and engine operation strategies. Key points for H2-ICE combustion are some specific and unique features of H2/air mixtures, among which – to name only a few – excellent dilutability, lean burn capability, low ignition energy and high molecular diffusivity and their consequences on ICE operation do play prominent roles. H2 admission via port or direct injection, compression ratio selection and injection timing provide a set of parameters to control combustion features.

Meeting the particle number (PN) emissions limits in vehicle test sequences needs specific attention on each power variation event occurring in the internal combustion engine (ICE). ICE power variations arise from engine start onwards along the entire test drive. In hybrid systems, there is one further source for transient ICE response: each power shift between E-motor and ICE introduces gas flow variations with subsequent temperature response in the ICE and in the engine aftertreatment system (EAS). This bears consequences for engine out emissions as well as for the EAS efficiency and even for the durability of a catalytic converter. As system calibration engineers must decide on numerous actuator parameters, their decisions, finally, are crucial for meeting legislative limits under the boundary conditions given by the hybrid vehicle’s drive environment.