Advanced Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis based PEM Electrolyzers for Improved Efficiency and Reduced Emissions of Combatant Craft Diesel Engines

The Naval Special Warfare Group - 4 spends billions of dollars annually for energy, with a major portion of this attributed to fuel consumption on-board its combatant crafts such as the Special Operations Craft-Riverine (SOC-R). Prior research indicates the potential of utilizing H2 injection into the air intake of the SOC-R diesel engine to improve its efficiency and reduce emissions. In this project, Lynntech will conduct engine testing to reduce the volume of hydrogen needed to gain the fuel efficiency benefits in the engine. Additionally, pure oxygen will be added along with the hydrogen into the air intake to provide even further fuel efficiency benefits due to the improved stoichiometric combustion that can be expected in this scenario. Also, for the above combustion approach to be practically feasible, the H2 and O2 for injection into the engine will need to be generated on site from water. Lynntech has developed advanced proton exchange membrane based electrolyzer systems that utilize novel, high efficiency nano-architectured oxygen evolution reaction catalysts for producing H2 and O2 from water. These systems have minimal mass and volume footprint, and can provide the maximum engine fuel efficiency benefit with minimum power penalty to generate the H2 and O2.