Evaluating the Efficacy of Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engines for use in Emission-Intensive Sectors through Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations

Hydrogen fuel is an alternative fuel and energy carrier for the power sector. This study outlines a framework for evaluating its efficacy as a substitute for natural gas in internal combustion (IC) engines through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Firstly, relevant literature was reviewed to outline its properties and application considerations, and previous works that analyzed its performance through CFD were explored. Next, five CONVERGE CFD simulations were designed and run for both hydrogen fuel and methane (CH4), the primary component of natural gas, using a four-stroke singlecylinder engine model, sweeping spark timing to determine the maximum brake torque (MBT) spark timing, and adjusting the mass flow to achieve the same fuel energy input. For each simulation case, 3D ParaView visualizations and graphs of the heat release rate (HRR) and pressure curves were generated for qualitative comparison of the two fuels’ performance over one cycle and indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) was calculated and plotted to find the MBT timing for each fuel and quantitatively determine which exhibited the highest overall efficiency. The ITE metric was used to evaluate the hydrogen’s overall efficacy in IC engines, depending on whether or not its efficiency exceeded or resembled methane.