A hydrogen injection system with solenoid valves for a four-cylinder hydrogen-fuelled engine

A four-cylinder four-stroke water-cooled gasoline engine with spark ignitio n is refitted to an in-cylinder injection spark-ignition hydrogen-fuelled e ngine, and the concept of its test apparatus is set up. The study to be rep orted in this paper focuses mainly on modification for its hydrogen supply system and combustion system to solve such problems as small power output a nd abnormal combustion in a hydrogen-fuelled engine. A fast response soleno id valve, which possesses good switch characteristics and very fast respons e, and its electronic control system are described. A high pressure hydroge n injector is designed to improve hydrogen jet penetration and mixture form ation in the combustion chamber, and to prevent backfire occurring in the h ydrogen supply pipe between the fast response valve and the combustion cham ber. Ignition by spark plug is adopted and an Intel 8098 chip microprocesso r is developed to control ignition and injection timing optimally. This stu dy shows that abnormal combustion, such as backfire, pre-ignition, high pre ssure rise rate and knock, can be controlled and performance of the engine can be improved by means of this system. (C) 1999 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.