Supercharger Boosting on H2 ICE for Heavy Duty applications

Commercial vehicle powertrain is called to respect a challenging roadmap for CO2 emissions reduction, quite complex to achieve just improving technologies currently on the market. In this perspective alternative solutions are gaining interest, and the use of green H2 as fuel for ICE is considered a high potential solution with fast and easy adoption. NOx emission is still a problem for H2 ICE and can be managed operating the engine with lean air fuel ratio all over the engine map. This combustion strategy will challenge the boosting system as lean H2 combustion will require quite higher air flow compared to diesel for the same power density in steady state. Similar problem will show up in transient response particularly when acceleration starts from low load and the exhaust gases enthalpy is very poor and insufficient to spin the turbine. The analysis presented in this paper will show and quantify the positive impact that a supercharger has on both the above mentions problems. It is capable to guarantee same torque output as diesel engine maintaining same engine displacement, while simultaneously improving transient response keeping the air fuel ratio on the desired level. Eaton has Supercharger in its portfolio products since decades. The long experience on different applications makes it a ready now technology helping a faster introduction of H2 ICE solution on HD market application.