Hydrogen opposed-piston engine
AssigneeAchates Power, Inc.
InventorsFabien G. Redon, Ming Huo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An opposed-piston engine is configured to use hydrogen fuel. The opposed-piston engine has at least one cylinder and a pair of pistons disposed for opposed motion in a bore of the cylinder. Hydrogen fuel is directly side-injected into the cylinder in a compression stroke of the opposed-piston engine, mixed with charge air in the cylinder, and auto-ignited in a combustion chamber formed in the cylinder between the pistons during the compression stroke. A method of operating the hydrogen opposed-piston engine includes switching between a first ignition mode using an externally-generated ignition impulse to ignite the mixture of hydrogen fuel and charge air, and a second ignition mode using compression to ignite the mixture.
Claims10
A two-stroke cycle opposed-piston engine, comprising:
- at least one ported cylinder with a bore;
- a pair of pistons disposed for mutually opposing movements in the bore, such that a maximum volume is defined in the bore when the pistons are furthest apart during a compression stroke of the engine and a minimum volume is defined in the bore when the pistons are closest together during an expansion stroke of the engine;
- an air intake channel configured to convey a flow of charge air to an intake port of the cylinder;
- an exhaust channel configured to receive a flow of exhaust gas through an exhaust port of the cylinder;
- a hydrogen fuel provisioning device configured to provide hydrogen fuel;
- at least one fuel injection device coupled to the hydrogen fuel provisioning device and configured to inject the provided hydrogen fuel into the cylinder bore;
- and,
- a control unit coupled to the at least one fuel injection device and programmed to:
- operate the at least one fuel injection device to cause a pilot injection of hydrogen fuel during an occurrence of a maximum volume defined in the bore between the first and second pistons;
- and,
- operate the at least one fuel injection device to cause a main injection of hydrogen fuel during an occurrence of a minimum volume defined in the bore between the first and second pistons;
- whereby, the hydrogen fuel auto-ignites in response to compression of the charge air in the cylinder.
A method for operating an opposed-piston engine, comprising the steps of:
- providing a flow of charge air into a combustion chamber defined in a cylinder bore between the end surfaces of two pistons of the engine;
- directly injecting hydrogen fuel into the combustion chamber;
- forming a mixture of injected hydrogen fuel and charge air in the combustion chamber;
- and,
- auto-igniting the mixture of injected hydrogen fuel and charge air by compressing the mixture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.