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Owing to climate change issues caused by global warming, the role of alternative fuels, such as low-carbon and non-carbon fuels, is becoming increasingly important, particularly in the transportation sector. Therefore, hydrogen has emerged as a promising fuel for internal combustion engines because it does not emit carbon dioxide. Direct injection is mandatory for hydrogen-based internal combustion engines to mitigate backfires and low energy density. However, there is a lack of measurement of the equivalence ratio methodology because hydrogen has a higher diffusion rate than conventional fuels. The objective of this research is a feasibility study of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBs) for measuring the equivalence ratio. The second harmonic ND-YAG laser was implemented to induce the atomic emission of hydrogen via the breakdown phenomenon. Simultaneously, the hydrogen jet structure was visualized in a constant volume vessel using Schlieren imaging. Therefore, the experimental results have both measurement location and equivalence ratio information. High-speed Schlieren imaging indicated a highly contracted jet structure under elevated-ambient-pressure conditions. Meanwhile, the local-rich mixture was detected only when the ambient pressure was high due to jet contraction. By contrast, hydrogen does not exist in the core region of the jet because the nozzle has a hollow cone shape under low-ambient-pressure conditions. According to preliminary experimental results, the direct-injected hydrogen jet can be measured using LIBs. However, there was a clear limitation because only the local point area could be measured using LIBs. Despite this apparent limitation, LIBs can contribute to promoting hydrogen-based internal combustion engines to meet the carbon neutrality target by 2050.

To meet the target of the CO2 regulations, it is mandatory to replace high-carbon fossil fuels with low-carbon fuels. Diesel/Natural Gas (NG) reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) can reduce CO2 emission, which stratifies two types of fuels with different reactivity. And also, RCCI produces less NOx and particulate matter emissions by reducing the in-cylinder temperature. However, RCCI must still be enhanced in terms of the thermal and combustion efficiencies at low and medium loads. In this work, a modified piston geometry was applied to improve the RCCI combustion. The piston geometry was designed to minimize heat loss and reduce flame quenching in an RCCI engine. Experiments were conducted using a single-cylinder engine with a displacement volume of 1,000 cc. Diesel was directly injected into the cylinder, and NG was fed through the intake port. Two different engine loads were selected to represent the low and medium loads for the operation of the engine, i.e., 4.3 bar indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and 7.5 bar IMEP, respectively. According to the experimental results, the combustion efficiency and thermal efficiency of the modified piston were improved by up to 0.8% and 1.0%, respectively. Energy balance analysis showed that the heat transfer loss decreased by 1.1% owing to the minimal surface area of the piston. Therefore, the thermal efficiency improved. In addition, the combustion efficiency was improved because a large squish height and a small squish distance enabled the flame to reach the crevice area, which had poor conditions for flame maintenance. Heat-loss management using an modified piston geometry can contribute to the reduction in CO2 emissions in RCCI engines.