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CO2 emissions associated with hydrogen production can be reduced replacing steam methane reforming with electrolysis using renewable electricity with a trade-off of increasing energy consumption, water consumption and cost. In this research, a linear programming optimization model of a hydrogen production system that considers simultaneously energy consumption, water consumption, CO2 emissions and cost on a cradle-to-gate basis was developed. The model was used to evaluate the impact of CO2 intensity on the optimum design of a hydrogen production system for Japan considering different stakeholders' priorities. Hydrogen is produced using steam methane reforming and electrolysis. Electricity sources include grid, wind, solar photovoltaic, geothermal and hydro. Independent of the stakeholders' priorities, steam methane reforming dominates hydrogen production for cradle-to-gate CO2 intensities larger than 9 kg CO2/kg H2, while electrolysis using renewable electricity dominates for lower cradle-to-gate CO2 intensities. Reducing the cradle-to-gate CO2 intensity increases energy consumption, water consumption and specific cost of hydrogen production. For a cradle-to-gate CO2 intensity of 0 kg CO2/kg H2, the specific cost of hydrogen production varies between 8.81 and 13.6 USD/kg H2; higher than the specific cost of hydrogen production targeted by the Japanese government in 2030 of 30 JPY/Nm3, 3.19 USD/kg H2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a four-stroke cycle port-fuel-injected spark-ignition engine, a significant portion of unburned hydrocarbons is exhausted during the short period of cold start. The aim of this study is to investigate the physics behind the wall-wet phenomena and its determining parameter as simply as possible even though qualitative to some extent. The test engine is driven at a constant speed of 350 r/min. The fuel injection starts at a certain cycle, and the cycles required for the first ignition is counted. Three gasoline injectors having different atomization characteristics are used for port fuel injection, and the droplet size, the spray angle and the spray velocity are varied independently. The fuel transport phenomena from the injector to the cylinder are characterized by only two parameters, α and β, the mass fraction of the fuel without wall-wet and the mass fraction of the evaporated fuel from liquid films on walls. They are determined so that all the first ignition cycles observed experimentally are consistently reproduced by the model. The value of α is successfully determined for every single injector, and it increases monotonously with the decrease in the Stokes number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]