Hydrogen Injection

[Boadie]

What are the downsides to hydrogen injection (Brown's Gas) on a diesel engine. The reason I am inquiring is that a buddy of mine is trying to get me interested in his new buisness venture Producing, selling Hydrogen Ingection systems. He apparently invented this system. I told him that I would become more knoledgeable on the subject. Things that I think I know so far:

-Increased fuel economy
-Lower EGTs
-Loss of warranty
-Hydrogen during combustion weakens metal. There supposedly is an additive you can buy to mix with your oil to prevent this. Forgot the name

Do not know a whole lot yet. He just asked me tonight. If anything it sounds cool so far.

 

[JLDickmon]

the one thing that gets me about the "increased fuel economy claims" when you're talking piggyback'ed alternative fuels... you use less of the diesel fuel, but you're replacing that with another fuel.

Youneed to take the cost of that fuel into account as well, and I highly doubt it's going to end up very economical, ergo, fuel costs will rise, contrary to manufacturer claims..

as far as hydrogen injection goes..

-Hydrogen during combustion weakens metal. There supposedly is an additive you can buy to mix with your oil to prevent this. Forgot the name

here again, you see potential damage, unless you buy this other magic stuff, so, the only person that benefits, are the people that sold you the system.

 

[Zookie400]

Hydrogen gas is highly flammable and will burn at concentrations as low as 4% H2 in air.

from wikipedia

i dont think it would be advantageous on a diesel when compared to propane. hydrogen combusts extremely fast, and wont help burn 100% of the already injected diesel. also i think if its injected during idle, it will cause pre-ignition due to a diesel engines high compression.

hydrogen is much more suitable for a gasoline type engine, where the cylinder temps stay low (compared to diesels), and the ignition is controlled by a spark. newer fuel injected gassers will cut back on the fuel delivery based on the o2 sensor readings, so pumping in hydrogen does actually save you some fuel.

as far as weakening metal.....i dont know if its true or not, but even if it is the process takes too long to worry about. we have a large gas company that brings their trucks to us for maintenance. 5 of their trucks have a "hybrid" cummins in them...runs on diesel (mainly for starting purposes) and hydrogen. in order to run the hydrogen, the engine is very low compression so it has no power, and forget about starting it on a cold day. they were experimental trucks for the company, and they found that although they werent paying someone else for fuel (self supplied hydrogen), they were running through the hydrogen so fast, it was actually costing them more, and the driving range for these trucks was significantly less than the regular diesels. im not sure if cummins still offers the isb for hydro, i know you can get them setup for CNG and its a very similar setup.