Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Yes, but read the article. They used from 5% to 95% Hydrogen. At 60% hydrogen, maybe he gets an 80% improvement, but the scams sold, claim to use one gallon of water for 12000 Km. If it was one gal water per 12 miles, ok that would be putting some energy into the engine, in lieu of the diesel.
7 November 2005
First Diesel-Hydrogen Engine
Researchers at the University of Tasmania have announced a hydrogen-injection system with potential to cut diesel consumption by 80 per cent.
BLANCH : Engineers working on the project say it can increase power by 20 per cent and drastically reduce emissions. The innovation can be fitted to existing diesel systems for as little as $AUD3,000 dollars. The emergent hydrogen-diesel hybrid technology has attracted a visit to Tasmania by Japan's Congeneration Centre, a research establishment with a charter to find new energy sources.
Associate Professor of Engineering, Vishy Karri, leads the team that has achieved the breakthrough.
BLANCH : Vishy, you've managed to run a compression engine with a combination of diesel and hydrogen. So what results does this produce?
DR. KARRI : Firstly, the amount of power output that we get is significantly high, and also it drastically cuts the emissions, and very, very significantly reduces the diesel consumption, that's the innovative part of it.
BLANCH : So cutting diesel consumption by 80 per cent is massive. Is there any loss of power in doing that?
DR. KARRI : Not at all, contrary to that it actually increases the power, close to 20 per cent compared to a standard diesel engine of the same capacity, running on 100 per cent diesel.
BLANCH : So what's the ratio of diesel to hydrogen to get these results?
DR. KARRI : Well, we tried several ratios. I mean we can change things going from, say five per cent of hydrogen injection into the engine to close to 95 per cent injection of hydrogen and these results that we obtained are for a 60 per cent hydrogen injection and 40 per cent diesel.
BLANCH : Well, you're the first ones to mix both hydrogen and diesel. So why has this not been done before?
DR. KARRI : Well, that's a very good question. I get this quite often actually. What has been done in the past, for example, you take BMW or some of the Japanese companies who are working with this sort of technology, they have done either 100 per cent of one or the other, so they used either 100 per cent diesel or 100 per cent hydrogen to make these engines work. But what makes us the world first is a controlled injection of the percentages of hydrogen that we want precisely injected into this combustion chamber to get the results we want.
BLANCH : So what have you discovered that allows you to mix the two fuels?
DR. KARRI : Well, this is what we call a Mechatronic Injection Control Unit. This is lead by Doctor Hafez in our research group, that precisely controls at what percentages and how much that we can inject at any given time. And this is an electronic unit that could be retro-fitted to any engines to make this combination possible.
BLANCH : So it will fit any diesel engine?
DR. KARRI : Yes, the idea is to build these modular tools, which we have done that could be readily fitted to any existing diesel engine without too much effort to get the desired results of reduced emissions and marginal increase in power.
BLANCH : So with the shortage of other renewable energy and fossil fuel sources in the world, how do costs compare?
DR. KARRI : Well what I would gather from this is you mean costs of using hydrogen.
BLANCH : Yes.
DR. KARRI : At the moment, the cost of producing hydrogen is about three times to petrol. Say for example, if I have to drive a car from Hobart to Launceston, I would need 125 dollars worth of hydrogen, compared to 45 dollars worth of petrol, which is about three times at the moment, but not for long, because the cost of producing hydrogen is coming down at a phenomenal rate, at the same rate as the petrol costs are going up. So I sort of see this breaking even in the next five years.
BLANCH : You've had a delegation of 18 from Japan's Congeneration Centre. They've been visiting you in recent weeks, so with what sort of outcomes?
DR. KARRI : Well, they all come from various backgrounds. They were all senior industry personnel and university professors coming to shake hands with us. They sort of see us as champions in internal combustion technology for using hydrogen and as you may be aware, Japan has traditionally been a fuel cell technology country. They spent 22 Billion yens on fuel cell technologies and they sort of see that as the 20 years, a time that it is possible to get fuel cells commercially viable, and they are coming to see how we build a collaboration from using internal combustion engines in transitional times, from now until 20 years before the fuel cells become commercially viable.
BLANCH : Well, you're doing some trials of the technology on Cape Barren Island in Bass Strait, which is off the north east coast of Tasmania, so take us through what you're doing as it is described as being as close to a perpetual motion machine as you can get?
DR. KARRI : Eh well, this is as you may be aware Hydro Tasmania and the University of Tasmania have been working on this issue and Hydro Tasmania is in a better position to announce this particular Cape Barren Island issue, but we provide the research and development part for the Cape Barren. But the idea is, there is a wind power on the islands and that the wind power will drive the electrolyzers to produce hydrogen--excess wind, and we store that hydrogen and when there is no wind, we use that stored hydrogen to run the internal combustion engines to power the houses.
So this is like a hydrogen-assisted remote area power system if you like and this is what is proposed by Hydro Tasmania. And what is very interesting is there is a sister project that's done in Japan now. It's called Aomori Prefecture project that runs in parallel to what we are proposing in Tasmania, for which we are also actively involved in research and development.
As a matter of fact, I'm heading out there on the 14th November to address the technical issues and to lead a team of engineers out there.
BLANCH : So this model that you're developing from Cape Barren Island, who can use it, because the Japanese have small islands as well, as we do don't they?
DR. KARRI : That's exactly right. I mean what we are trying to do is to build those sister projects, like we have certain things that we are putting in place with Hydro Tasmania, university collaboration, to power these small islands and then we are trying to replicate or build similar expertise and technology know-how in Japan as well. So we are learning together with Japan on this particular matter, which I think is extremely significant.
But what is more important is these tools that we are building are so generic and we have so much of Australian Archipelago, so many islands, and there's a large established diesel infrastructure available, old infrastructure available, and these modular tools will ensure that those old technologies are not thrown out, but build these tools and act to the existing old infrastructure and still make them conform to the modern regulations of emissions, that's the significant part.
BLANCH : So what needs to occur before your technology is commercially available?
DR. KARRI : Well, what we are hoping to do is to successfully run a pilot case in the country to demonstrate to both government and also to the public firstly that this technology is for the future and hydrogen is safe. It is not any different to what we have been having for natural gas or LPG. We had transition times when we had LPG coming into the market, now we are trying to push hydrogen into the market, and the safety aspects and also the infrastructure aspects that we were talking about are on par with what we have seen with natural gas and LPG. So there should not be any apprehension to public that a hydrogen economy or a hydrogen transition is not any danger. So once that comes in, the commercial viability or commercial consequence is only the next step.
BLANCH : So when would you hope to have the technology ready for general use?
DR. KARRI : Well, I really hope to see this in the next two to three years. It could be in a small scale. We may be talking about running a few pilot programs in terms of running cars, or running generators for these remote islands and demonstrating that the scooters and internal combustion engines are all possible to run on 100 per cent hydrogen and also give public a 100 per cent assurance that it is nothing dangerous about using the hydrogen, that's the critical part and that's what we're hoping to do.
BLANCH : So when would you hope to see an emerging hydrogen economy happening here in Australia?
DR. KARRI : Well, I mean, if you look at Japan and Germany and the United States, they already have some form of hydrogen economy going on at the moment. They have a fleet of buses and a certain form of transport. They have infrastructure in terms of refuelling stations and they have people actually working for retrofitting these things, like trained personnel working on these hydrogen appliances and we are at a stage of building that local expertise within Australia and I'm very proud to say that we're almost on par in terms of technology with the United States and Japan. It's a question of the local governments and the Australian governments to come to grips with it and see the need to push this in the immediate future. Well I certainly would like to see the hydrogen economy fly in the next five years in Australia.
BLANCH : Doctor Vishy Karri, from the School of Engineering, and The Hydrogen and Allied Renewable Technology research group at the University of Tasmania with the first diesel hydrogen engine.
7 November 2005
First Diesel-Hydrogen Engine
Researchers at the University of Tasmania have announced a hydrogen-injection system with potential to cut diesel consumption by 80 per cent.
BLANCH : Engineers working on the project say it can increase power by 20 per cent and drastically reduce emissions. The innovation can be fitted to existing diesel systems for as little as $AUD3,000 dollars. The emergent hydrogen-diesel hybrid technology has attracted a visit to Tasmania by Japan's Congeneration Centre, a research establishment with a charter to find new energy sources.
Associate Professor of Engineering, Vishy Karri, leads the team that has achieved the breakthrough.
BLANCH : Vishy, you've managed to run a compression engine with a combination of diesel and hydrogen. So what results does this produce?
DR. KARRI : Firstly, the amount of power output that we get is significantly high, and also it drastically cuts the emissions, and very, very significantly reduces the diesel consumption, that's the innovative part of it.
BLANCH : So cutting diesel consumption by 80 per cent is massive. Is there any loss of power in doing that?
DR. KARRI : Not at all, contrary to that it actually increases the power, close to 20 per cent compared to a standard diesel engine of the same capacity, running on 100 per cent diesel.
BLANCH : So what's the ratio of diesel to hydrogen to get these results?
DR. KARRI : Well, we tried several ratios. I mean we can change things going from, say five per cent of hydrogen injection into the engine to close to 95 per cent injection of hydrogen and these results that we obtained are for a 60 per cent hydrogen injection and 40 per cent diesel.
BLANCH : Well, you're the first ones to mix both hydrogen and diesel. So why has this not been done before?
DR. KARRI : Well, that's a very good question. I get this quite often actually. What has been done in the past, for example, you take BMW or some of the Japanese companies who are working with this sort of technology, they have done either 100 per cent of one or the other, so they used either 100 per cent diesel or 100 per cent hydrogen to make these engines work. But what makes us the world first is a controlled injection of the percentages of hydrogen that we want precisely injected into this combustion chamber to get the results we want.
BLANCH : So what have you discovered that allows you to mix the two fuels?
DR. KARRI : Well, this is what we call a Mechatronic Injection Control Unit. This is lead by Doctor Hafez in our research group, that precisely controls at what percentages and how much that we can inject at any given time. And this is an electronic unit that could be retro-fitted to any engines to make this combination possible.
BLANCH : So it will fit any diesel engine?
DR. KARRI : Yes, the idea is to build these modular tools, which we have done that could be readily fitted to any existing diesel engine without too much effort to get the desired results of reduced emissions and marginal increase in power.
BLANCH : So with the shortage of other renewable energy and fossil fuel sources in the world, how do costs compare?
DR. KARRI : Well what I would gather from this is you mean costs of using hydrogen.
BLANCH : Yes.
DR. KARRI : At the moment, the cost of producing hydrogen is about three times to petrol. Say for example, if I have to drive a car from Hobart to Launceston, I would need 125 dollars worth of hydrogen, compared to 45 dollars worth of petrol, which is about three times at the moment, but not for long, because the cost of producing hydrogen is coming down at a phenomenal rate, at the same rate as the petrol costs are going up. So I sort of see this breaking even in the next five years.
BLANCH : You've had a delegation of 18 from Japan's Congeneration Centre. They've been visiting you in recent weeks, so with what sort of outcomes?
DR. KARRI : Well, they all come from various backgrounds. They were all senior industry personnel and university professors coming to shake hands with us. They sort of see us as champions in internal combustion technology for using hydrogen and as you may be aware, Japan has traditionally been a fuel cell technology country. They spent 22 Billion yens on fuel cell technologies and they sort of see that as the 20 years, a time that it is possible to get fuel cells commercially viable, and they are coming to see how we build a collaboration from using internal combustion engines in transitional times, from now until 20 years before the fuel cells become commercially viable.
BLANCH : Well, you're doing some trials of the technology on Cape Barren Island in Bass Strait, which is off the north east coast of Tasmania, so take us through what you're doing as it is described as being as close to a perpetual motion machine as you can get?
DR. KARRI : Eh well, this is as you may be aware Hydro Tasmania and the University of Tasmania have been working on this issue and Hydro Tasmania is in a better position to announce this particular Cape Barren Island issue, but we provide the research and development part for the Cape Barren. But the idea is, there is a wind power on the islands and that the wind power will drive the electrolyzers to produce hydrogen--excess wind, and we store that hydrogen and when there is no wind, we use that stored hydrogen to run the internal combustion engines to power the houses.
So this is like a hydrogen-assisted remote area power system if you like and this is what is proposed by Hydro Tasmania. And what is very interesting is there is a sister project that's done in Japan now. It's called Aomori Prefecture project that runs in parallel to what we are proposing in Tasmania, for which we are also actively involved in research and development.
As a matter of fact, I'm heading out there on the 14th November to address the technical issues and to lead a team of engineers out there.
BLANCH : So this model that you're developing from Cape Barren Island, who can use it, because the Japanese have small islands as well, as we do don't they?
DR. KARRI : That's exactly right. I mean what we are trying to do is to build those sister projects, like we have certain things that we are putting in place with Hydro Tasmania, university collaboration, to power these small islands and then we are trying to replicate or build similar expertise and technology know-how in Japan as well. So we are learning together with Japan on this particular matter, which I think is extremely significant.
But what is more important is these tools that we are building are so generic and we have so much of Australian Archipelago, so many islands, and there's a large established diesel infrastructure available, old infrastructure available, and these modular tools will ensure that those old technologies are not thrown out, but build these tools and act to the existing old infrastructure and still make them conform to the modern regulations of emissions, that's the significant part.
BLANCH : So what needs to occur before your technology is commercially available?
DR. KARRI : Well, what we are hoping to do is to successfully run a pilot case in the country to demonstrate to both government and also to the public firstly that this technology is for the future and hydrogen is safe. It is not any different to what we have been having for natural gas or LPG. We had transition times when we had LPG coming into the market, now we are trying to push hydrogen into the market, and the safety aspects and also the infrastructure aspects that we were talking about are on par with what we have seen with natural gas and LPG. So there should not be any apprehension to public that a hydrogen economy or a hydrogen transition is not any danger. So once that comes in, the commercial viability or commercial consequence is only the next step.
BLANCH : So when would you hope to have the technology ready for general use?
DR. KARRI : Well, I really hope to see this in the next two to three years. It could be in a small scale. We may be talking about running a few pilot programs in terms of running cars, or running generators for these remote islands and demonstrating that the scooters and internal combustion engines are all possible to run on 100 per cent hydrogen and also give public a 100 per cent assurance that it is nothing dangerous about using the hydrogen, that's the critical part and that's what we're hoping to do.
BLANCH : So when would you hope to see an emerging hydrogen economy happening here in Australia?
DR. KARRI : Well, I mean, if you look at Japan and Germany and the United States, they already have some form of hydrogen economy going on at the moment. They have a fleet of buses and a certain form of transport. They have infrastructure in terms of refuelling stations and they have people actually working for retrofitting these things, like trained personnel working on these hydrogen appliances and we are at a stage of building that local expertise within Australia and I'm very proud to say that we're almost on par in terms of technology with the United States and Japan. It's a question of the local governments and the Australian governments to come to grips with it and see the need to push this in the immediate future. Well I certainly would like to see the hydrogen economy fly in the next five years in Australia.
BLANCH : Doctor Vishy Karri, from the School of Engineering, and The Hydrogen and Allied Renewable Technology research group at the University of Tasmania with the first diesel hydrogen engine.
