Mechatronics for Hydrogen Fuelling of Single Cylinder Internal Combustion Engine

The task of converting a single cylinder engine to run on hydrogen fuel is detailed. The hydrogen fuelling system was designed to be concurrent with the petrol/gasoline fuel system. This made it possible to start the engine and prepare the data acquisition in petrol mode and then switch to hydrogen fuel on the fly. This simplified the experiments as all preparatory work could be done in the conventional petrol mode. Switching to hydrogen was facilitated by adopting a compensation scheme in the Engine Control Unit. Safety measures due to hydrogen extreme flammability were implemented by adopting four hydrogen sensors that were integrated through a hardwired system as well as through a LabVIEW supervisory program. The system was made to shut down fuel supply automatically if any alarm is reached. Nitrogen was flowed into the crankcase to remove oxygen from the crankcase and thus make an inert environment in the crankcase. Experiments to acquire in-cylinder pressure and hence combustion characterization of hydrogen were thus performed in a mechatronically controlled safe environment.