A HYDROGEN FUELED INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE DESIGNED FOR SINGLE SPEED POWER OPERATION/

Sandia National Laboratory is developing from first principles a hydro gen fuelled internal combustion engine for driving an electrical gener ator that can be utilized either as a stationary power set or the auxi liary power unit in a hybrid vehicle. The intent is to take advantage of hydrogen's unique fuel characteristics and the constant speed chara cteristics of generator sets to maximize thermal efficiency while mini mizing emissions. The current experiments utilize a flat cylinder comb ustion chamber shape with two ignition points at high (14: 1) compress ion ratio. Emissions and indicated thermal efficiency measurements wit h fuels of hydrogen, natural gas and a blend confirm low emissions and high thermal efficiency. CFD modelling done by Los Alamos National La boratory (Los Alamos, NM) using their KIVA code is helping to further direct variations in the experimental design space. (C) 1998 Internati onal Association for Hydrogen Energy.