Enabling green ammonia as future transport fuel

Ammonia, a highly hydrogenated molecule, has been identified as an important means to support a transition to hydrogen economy, as it can be used to store and distribute hydrogen easily because of the already existing infrastructure for transport and storage of ammonia.

If hydrogen is to be extracted from ammonia at the point of use, the thermo-catalysis of ammonia back to hydrogen requires a high amount of energy. Preferably ammonia is used directly as a carbon-free liquid fuel for combustion engines in power generation, marine vessels and long-haul vehicles where batteries cannot be used due to their low energy density (hence large volume and weight), high cost and long charging times.

However, the significantly lower energy density (as measured by calorific value) of ammonia requires much larger fuel storage space and weight to be used. More importantly, the direct application of ammonia in combustion engines suffers from incomplete combustion and poor engine performance due to ammonia's higher ignition energy, higher auto-ignition temperature as well as significantly lower flame speed.

In order to address the aforementioned challenges of ammonia and hydrogen for their applications in transport, a new type of liquid ammonia blended with hydrogen will be researched and demonstrated in this project with advanced modelling and experimental techniques.

The proposed novel fuel has both ammonia and hydrogen molecules, and will enable

1. immediate and wider use of carbon free ammonia and hydrogen in existing engines, particularly for long haul vehicles, marine vessels and power generators,
2. significantly improved engine performance and lower emissions through increased energy density, faster and complete combustion.

Therefore, the developed liquid ammonia blended with hydrogen would enable an immediate, cost-effective and 100% reduction in CO2 emissions to achieve net zero target in long haul transport, shipping, and power generation sectors by and beyond 2050 that will be difficult to achieve with existing technologies in use or in development.

The transformation from conventional hydrocarbon fuels to carbon-free hydrogen and ammonia fuels through the proposed concept will enable cost-effective net zero growth in a range of industries, including automotive, marine, aviation and power industries, engine and propulsion system suppliers, and renewable energy and fuel industries.

The project will improve the UK knowledge and skills base and directly benefit:

1. automotive, light aviation and marine industries;
2. suppliers of combustion propulsion systems including combustion engines and gas turbines;
3. Renewable energy usage and fuel industries;
4. Relevant academia in a range of disciplines/research areas, including combustion propulsion systems, ammonia/hydrogen, fundamental combustion, numerical modelling, optical/laser diagnostics of spray and combustion.

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Dr Xinyan Wang - Xinyan Wang is currently a Professor at the Centre of Advanced Powertrain and Fuels, Brunel University London, UK. He was awarded the prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship  Programme in 2020. Prof. Wang is currently the member of the Peer Review College for the UKRI Talent Peer Review College, associate member of the Peer Review College for the UK Engineering and Natural Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), committee member of Hydrogen Europe Research (HER), committee member of UK Chinese Society of Automotive Engineering (UKCSAE), Senate member of Brunel University London, member of Brunel Hydrogen team. He is the Associate Principal Editor of Fuel (Elsevier), a member of the editorial board of the international journal Highlights of Vehicles, and a guest editor of MDPI Sustainability, Frontiers in Thermal Engineering and Frontiers in Energy Research. He is a member of BSI committee LBI/50 Fine Bubble Technology (FBT). His research interests include the research and development of novel fuels, low and zero carbon combustion engines.

Related Research Group(s)

Advanced Powertrain and Fuels - We have particular strengths in improving the efficiency and reducing energy cost of existing engines through developing low temperature combustion processes and their controls and regenerative braking, as well as unique methodologies for the study of fuels and engines.

Project last modified 02/10/2023