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News Energy-Sustainability

1
Feb
2023

MTU ENGINE PASSES 100 PERCENT HYDROGEN TEST RUNS

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Rolling-Royce Group is continuing tests to achieve the operation of internal combustion engines by replacing hydrocarbons with hydrogen, i.e. by direct combustion of hydrogen, as opposed to the proposals to use fuel cells, which are much more complex, have limited power and require electric motors and complementary batteries.

At the end of last year we already presented in this news (see https://www.revistadyna.com/noticias-de-ingenieria/los-combustibles-de-aviacion-sostenibles-y-motor-a-hidrogeno-de-rolls-royce) the tests carried out in the United Kingdom with an AE 2100-A turboprop engine and the intention to continue them in flight on a business jet. Now it has been in Germany with a 12-cylinder V-series 4000 engine manufactured by MTU, which is part of the Rolls-Royce group.
These engines are usually used connected to an alternator for power generation in isolated places or as a means of emergency, using different types of fuel, diesel, natural gas or HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) and with powers that for this type of 12-cylinder is just over 1,500 kW. During the tests with hydrogen, the engine, conveniently adapted, showed very good characteristics of operation, performance, combustion and, logically, emissions, operating for several months in zero carbon mode.
The first installation with these engines will be carried out for the enerPort II project of the Duisburg river port on the Rhine, aimed at providing a climate-neutral energy supply for a new container terminal. The heat and power requirements would be covered by hydrogen-powered MTU 4000 motor-alternators with 2 MW of installed capacity and fuel cell systems, also MTU, for 1.5 MW of installed capacity. This complex is proposed to be operational by 2024.