Ammonia as a Green and Zero Carbon Dioxide Internal Combustion Engine Fuel 2024-26-0080

Most of the vehicles with internal combustion engines worldwide use fossil fuels. The widely used fuels available on the market are gasoline, diesel, and CNG. These fuels are getting costlier every year while at the same time generating pollutants through exhaust gases. Hence in the market, electric vehicles are effectively providing pollution-free solutions in the passenger car and lightweight carrier vehicle segments. However, the off-road, heavy-duty, and stationary applications with high load factors, are in general less favorable for battery electric scenarios since frequent charging will be mandatory and time-consuming. Hence, for these applications, the replacement of an internal combustion engine is quite difficult. There are various renewable fuels like ammonia, methanol, and biodiesel under research tests and study. As these are renewable fuels, the cost of these fuels can be lowered during mass production. Here, the idea of ammonia as an alternate fuel is discussed, which can solve the problem of scarcity of fossil fuel, generation of greenhouse gas (CO₂) and instant electricity requirements. This technical paper covers the feasibility of ammonia fuel in the internal combustion engine based on the research studies and tests performed for analysis. This study will explain the ammonia fuel characteristics and compare them with other fuels, available technologies of combustion in large bore engines, storage and transport maturity, the impact of change in air fuel mixture on emissions during combustion and challenges in fuel handling due to the toxicity. This will comprise the internal combustion engine exhaust gas emission trend with ammonia fuel. Also, the scope of modification in the existing engines to adopt the ‘ammonia fuel’ with the help of modern design and simulation technology will be covered.