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This is a three-day course which provides a comprehensive and up to date introduction to fuel cells for use in automotive engineering applications. It is intended for engineers and particularly engineering managers who want to jump‐start their understanding of this emerging technology and to enable them to engage in its development. Following a brief description of fuel cells and how they work, how they integrate and add value, and how hydrogen is produced, stored and distributed, the course will provide the status of the technology from fundamentals through to practical implementation.

Global climate change is a threat and limiting global temperatures to 1.5 ⁰C is a challenge which is known to everyone. However, it is possible to avoid the worst consequences by taking scientifically defined paths. Science Based Target (SBT) is one such joint initiatives which provide companies with clearly defined path to reduce emissions in line with Paris agreement. In Europe collaboration of European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), OEMs and Refineries have come forward to understand the impact of different energy carriers on energy usage and CO2 emissions on WTW (Well-to-Wheel) basis. Outcome of such a study would result in emission factors (gCO2eq/unit fuel or energy consumed) for various energy carriers.

Due to increasing competitiveness, the arrival of industry giants, product pricing, etc., the automobile market in India is becoming more dynamic to adopt the changes. Apart from this, the product needs to be competitive to capture market by lowering the benefit margin. After launch and gaining of mass volume of the market, the Value Analysis and Value Engineering (VAVE) helps in minimizing the design and development costs through removal of non-value adding processes and activities by understanding the product's value, functions, features, customer demand, quality, and Real-World Usage Pattern (RWUP) without affecting the performance and eventually help in increasing the profit margin of organization. In this study, the benchmarked based statistical Light Weight Index (LWI) technique is developed for the predicting the world in class optimum weight. For these four statistical Light weight Index numbers is derived based on the geometrical dimensions.

Climate change due to global warming calls for more fuel-efficient technologies. Parallel Full hybrids are one of the promising technologies to curb the climate change by reducing CO2 emissions significantly. Different parallel hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) architectures such as P0, P1, P2, P3 and P4 are adopted based on different parameters like fuel economy, drivability, performance, packaging, comfort and total cost of ownership of the vehicle. It is a great challenge to select right hybrid architecture for different vehicle segments. This paper compares P2 and P3 HEV with AMT transmission to evaluate most optimized architecture based on vehicle segment. Vehicles selected for study are from popular vehicle segments in India with AMT transmission i.e. Entry segment hatch and Compact SUV. HEV P2 and P3 architectures are simulated and studied with different vehicle segments for fuel economy, performance, drivability and TCO.

Legislative challenges, changing customer needs and the opportunities opened-up by electrification are the major driving forces in today’s automotive industry. Fuel cell electric vehicles offer the potential for CO2 emission free mobility, especially attractive for heavy duty long-haul range application. The development of the key components of fuel cell electric vehicles, namely the fuel cell stack itself as well as the related hydrogen/air supply and thermal management sub-systems, goes hand in hand with a number of challenges with regards to performance, lifetime and safety. For fuel cell electric vehicles, the proper layout and sizing of the stack and the related fuel and air supply system components, as well as the suitable dimensioning of the cooling system, are decisive for the overall system efficiency and achievable lifetime.

In the current era of green energy adoption for reaching the zero-carbon target, the mobility sector is extensively working together to use hydrogen as a major source of energy, especially in vehicles with long range requirements. For this, Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) are employed to convert the chemical energy of hydrogen back into electricity. Acceptability of PEMFC in the automotive field mostly depends on system efficiency, durability & cost of the FC stack. In PEMFC, the bipolar plate (BPP) is a critical component of the system, which realizes the transport of gases to the electrodes, evacuates reactant product water and ensures electrical current collection. In some applications, graphite is used as material for bipolar plates due to good chemical stability and corrosion resistance, whereas it is also a rather brittle material with some manufacturing challenges.

India has recently shifted from BSVI 1.0 emissions norms to BSVI 2.0 RDE (Real Drive Emission) norms ready with implementation of conformity factors for the measurement of on-road emissions. The discrepancies between emission values measured in the laboratory (under controlled ambient conditions) and actual emission values on the road (under real driving conditions) will be reduced with the implementation of BSVI 2.0. Fuel impacts the vehicular tail pipe emission in a greater way and various regulated emission pollutants are reduced significantly. Government initiated fuel formulations like oxygenated fuels (E10 & E20) and OMCs (IOCL) initiated differentiated diesel fuels plays significant role in achieving the targets for real driving emissions.

Enhanced impeller blade design for water coolant pump in IC engines Sudeshna Roy Pratihar, Amol Barve, Onkar Mokashi, Naveen Patil Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India Private Ltd, India. Keywords: Turbulence; hydraulic efficiency; friction loss; computational fluid dynamics; tubercles Abstract: This paper illustrates scope for improvement in water pump hydraulic efficiency by proposing novel design of impeller blade for internal combustion engine. For water pump, hydraulic efficiency is directly proportional to fluid drag imposed on impeller blades. Friction loss & turbulence during typical operating conditions needs to considered, by keeping in mind optimum performance of water pump. Increase in drag losses results in higher power consumption of water pump. Considerable literature study indicates that, tubercles design in area of IC Engines more precisely in topics relevant to water pump design has never tested for Automotive application.

Most of the vehicles running in the world with internal combustion engines use fossil fuels. The commonly used fuels available in the market are gasoline, diesel and CNG. These fuels are becoming costlier every year and generate pollutants through exhaust gases. Hence in the market, electric vehicles are effectively providing pollution-free solutions in the passenger car and lightweight carrier vehicle segments. However, off-road, heavy-duty, and stationary applications with a high load factor, in general are less favorable for battery electric scenarios since frequent charging will be mandatory and time-consuming. Hence, for these ICE applications, the replacement of an internal combustion engine is quite difficult. There are various renewable fuels like Ammonia, Methanol, Biodiesel, etc. under research tests and study. As these are renewable fuels, the cost of these fuels can be lowered during mass production.

The demand for Compressed Biogas (CBG) as an alternative fuel to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is rapidly increasing due to its renewable nature and environmental benefits. However, CBG has a different gas composition than CNG, which may require hardware changes in fuel system to adapt to these variations while ensuring the same performance. Fuel delivery system of CNG vehicle comprises of fuel storage tank, fuel delivery circuit, pressure regulator, fuel rail and injector. Performance of a fuel injector and pressure regulator are critical factors in the efficient and effective delivery of gaseous fuel to engine. This paper theoretically examines fuel flow requirement of injectors with different gas compositions such as CNG, CBG, G25, G20 and taking in consideration other factors impacting overall performance. This paper defines one of the approaches to accommodate the variation in fuel composition and rail pressure while targeting same engine performance.

Fuel efficiency is one of the most important customer requirement in Indian market as well as very crucial to meet the upcoming regulation like CAFÉ for Indian Automotive manufacturers. Most of the technology changes to meet this challenge, always come with a cost penalty with hardware addition. To counter the above challenge, we identified a strategy in the EMS software, without any hardware change, that will dynamically adapt the spark timing based on fuel quality. This strategy has resulted in fuel efficiency improvement on MIDC as well as on-road as per customer driving pattern. Going forward the availability of Ethanol Blended Fuels are going to increase multifold, to take advantage of this, the dynamic spark advance strategy has been proposed in this paper. This paper elaborates on the work done to develop and validate the EMS Strategy as well as the test results with different Ethanol Fuel Blends.

India's natural gas consumption reached 60.3 billion cubic meters (BCM) in the year 2022-23, with imports accounting for 44.2% of the total consumption. As India targets 15% of primary energy consumption from gas by 2030, the demand for natural gas is expected to grow significantly. In this context, CBG, which can reduce dependence on imported natural gas, has emerged as a viable alternative to CNG. The government's SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) initiative encourages entrepreneurs to establish CBG plants and supply CBG to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for use as automotive and industrial fuels. As of April 2023, 47 CBG plants have been set up, and 117 retail outlets in India are selling CBG as a transportation fuel. The quality requirements of CBG are governed by IS 16087, aligning with the specifications for automotive CNG defined in IS 15958.

The increasing demand for higher specific power, fuel economy, Operating Costs as well as meeting global emission norms have become the driving factors of today’s product development in the automotive market today. Substitution of high-density materials and more precise adjustment of material parameters help in significant weight decrease, but it is accompanied by undesirable cost increase and manufacturing complexity. This becomes a challenge for every automotive engineer to balance the above parameters to make a highly competitive design. This work is a part of the Design and Development of 2.2 L, 4 Cylinder TCIC Diesel Engine for a complete new monocoque vehicle platform, focused on automotive passenger car application. This paper explains the selection of a suitable cylinder head gasket technology for a lightweight engine that acts as a sealing interface between the cylinder block and cylinder head.

Methanol, a fuel obtainable through the capture and conversion of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), has garnered attention as a suitable alternative fuel for gasoline. Methanol-gasoline blends, characterized by their high-octane rating, commendable performance, and reduced carbon emissions, present themselves as promising alternative fuels for internal combustion engines. In the present study, a comprehensive comparative analysis was conducted to assess the performance and emissions characteristics of unmodified vehicles utilizing methanol blends at lower concentrations, ranging up to 30%, in gasoline. The research focused on two distinct classes of vehicles commonly found on the roads of India: those compliant with BS-IV (Euro IV) and BS-VI (Euro VI) emission standards. Experimental evaluations were carried out on a chassis dynamometer, with the vehicles subjected to the Worldwide Harmonized Motorcycle Test Cycle (WMTC) and Wide open throttle (WOT) driving tests.