Aussie diesel-hydrogen dual-fuel tech could revolutionise transport industry

A research team at the University of New South Wales has developed an innovative new dual-fuel system that could future-proof your Toyota HiLux while drastically reducing its CO2 emissions.

UNSW says the innovative hydrogen-diesel powertrain technology can turn almost any existing diesel engine into a dramatically cleaner-running power source, cutting CO2 emissions by around 85 per cent.

Because it’s a retro-fittable fuel-injection system, it can be applied to any size diesel engine – from a small four-cylinder in anything from a compact hatch to a family SUV or dual-cab ute, to a large oil-burner in anything from a prime-mover to a container ship.

Professor Shawn Kook, who is leading the research team at the UNSW school of mechanical and manufacturing engineering, says the new fuel delivery system designed for existing diesel engines could be commercially viable in the next 12 to 24 months.

“This new technology significantly reduces CO2 emissions from existing diesel engines, so it could play a big part in making our carbon footprint much smaller, especially in Australia with all our mining, agriculture and other heavy industries where diesel engines are widely used,” said Professor Kook.

“Instead of new engine sales, our tech is retrofitting to existing engines. We hope to decarbonise heavy industries soon because it will take too long to wait for all the new technology to mature and make an impact to environment.

“That will take at least a decade, it’s too long,” he told carsales.     

“With the problem of carbon emissions and climate change, we need some more immediate solutions to deal with the issue of these many diesel engines currently in use.”

The UNSW team is currently talking to several investors to commercialise its innovative dual-fuel injection system and Professor Kook said the project is moving forward.

“There has been progress over the past six months – we’ve had presentations to investor groups and have initiated meetings with mining companies who are very keen to decarbonise. Now we want to go public,” he said.

The Professor confirmed there has been interest from mining and automotive companies both in Australia and overseas.

“We’ve been contacted by global mining companies and global engine manufacturers,” he said.

Capable of running on 90 per cent hydrogen, the new fuel delivery technology has been 18 months in the making and the first proof of concept developed by the UNSW team in Sydney was based on popular 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine currently available in family SUVs and utes in Australia.

A second, much larger diesel engine has also been retro-fitted with the hybrid fuel system.

“We’ve already scaled up to the size of a 6.4-litre engine,” Professor Kook told carsales.

“The technology is in place for the application of semi-trucks all the way up to marine engines.

“There’s no limitations at all here. That’s why we picked a common family SUV engine to start with. But the demand is more from established mining and construction industries. We’re actioning on that space first,” he said.

However, the idea that customers may one day be able to upgrade their diesel-powered SUV or ute to run almost exclusively on hydrogen is a sound one, said UNSW Engineering's Professor Kook.

“We’re looking into the mining industry and agriculture and construction first, and later when it’s matured we can move into trucks and buses before it goes out to private vehicles.

“The private buyer market will be the last market to explore because it’s just too diverse,” he explained, stating that there’s more uniformity in the diesel engines used by the mining and agricultural industries at present.

Professor Kook said it will take up to a couple of years to develop a commercially viable offering but the dual-fuel conversion system would cost roughly half the price of a diesel generator.

He explained that it would still be cheaper than buying a hydrogen fuel-cell generator, which typically costs around three times more than a diesel generator.

The only hurdle at present is storing the hydrogen. However, another team at the UNSW has been working on a new-generation hydrogen storage system that could be deployed on trucks, utes and cars.

“The [hydrogen] storage requires a whole new technology and hydrogen storage will be limited at present. But the beauty of working here [at UNSW] is that we have colleagues working next door developing next-generation hydrogen fuel tanks.

“We’re talking the size of small cylinder that is able to store the equivalent to a diesel fuel tank in a truck,” he said of the H2Store tech, which would deliver several hundred kilometres of range.

“They have storage prototypes already. It’s quite a mature technology and a start-up already established is working towards it,” he explained.

Professor Kook said the technology could also be applied to petrol engines, but it’s not as effective.

“Petrol engines can be converted to H2 no problem, but the major limitation is knocking [or pinging],” he said.

“It doesn’t mean there’s no tech to resolve that knocking issue but petrol engines have 30 per cent lower efficiency than diesel. That’s why power generators are based on diesel – because of efficiency.”

Of course, hydrogen refuelling infrastructure remains in its infancy in Australia and a number of car-makers have turned their backs on hydrogen as a fuel for vehicles other than heavy trucks.

However, Professor Kook said the UNSW team will initially target industrial locations where permanent hydrogen fuel supply lines are already in place such as mining sites, and new public hydrogen stations are slowly being established in Australia.

That could increase as more hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCEVs) come to market, potentially including the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series, Range Rover, INEOS Grenadier and the Ford Ranger-based H2X Warrego.

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