H2 Engine Hybrid Powertrain for Future Light Commercial Vehicles

Within the joint project “H2 ICE Democar”, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Ford, Bosch, MAHLE, Umicore, Institute of Automotive Engineering (IFS, University of Stuttgart), Research Institute for Automotive Engineering and Powertrain Systems (FKFS), Chair of Thermodynamics of Mobile Energy Conversion Systems (tme, RWTH Aachen University), DHL and Shell are identifying key requirements for the powertrain of a light commercial vehicle with H2 engine and hybrid powertrain. The potential of the technical solution will be demonstrated for a logistics application by a demo car. Besides engine and vehicle testing, simulations and experiments are carried out to gain a deeper understanding about the specifics of H2 engine operation in a hybrid powertrain. This paper focuses on selected aspects of the project such as modification of the well-known 1.0 L Ford EcoBoost three-cylinder gasoline engine for H2 operation. The analysis and optimization of the mixture preparation, verified by high-speed Schlieren measurements, 3D-simulation and thermodynamic analysis performed on multicylinder engines is discussed in detail as well as the selection of a suitable turbo charging system to enable lean operation (λ > 2) in the complete engine map.