University of Tasmania researchers say they have built an internal combustion engine that runs on a combination of hydrogen and diesel fuel, according to Ward’s.
Associate Professor Vishy Karri says the engine will serve as a transitional step until the mainstream introduction of IC engines fueled by hydrogen.
“During this transition time, if you inject hydrogen along with the diesel into the engine, you are not only saving the diesel (fuel), but you are also helping the environment," he says.
The engine took 18 months to build and was created by the Hydrogen and Allied Renewable Technologies research group set up by the University of Tasmania and Tasmania's state-owned Hydro-Electric Corp.
Karri says the engine can power existing generators and will allow remote communities worldwide to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
In a related study, a U.S. team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering recently announced it had invented a more efficient method to make a diesel-like liquid fuel from corn and biomass that stores a considerable amount of hydrogen.