Hydrogen (H2) has many industrial uses — making ammonia, refining oil, steel production, food processing, etc. It is now finding a new use, which is, powering of the farm tractors.
New Holland Co. has a tractor named NH2 that uses a hydrogen-diesel fuel mix to enhance power and reduce emissions. The engine can run on 100 percent diesel or a diesel-hydrogen mix. The tractor is based on their T6000 line with one fundamental difference: it’s powered by an emission-free hydrogen fuel cell.
H2 is injected and mixed with air during the piston intake stroke. As with all diesel engines, diesel is injected near top dead center of the compression stroke and compression heat ignites the combined fuels.
The tractor has been jointly developed with Blue Fuel Solutions, which uses a combination of H2 and diesel, which results in a CO2 reduction of about fifty percent thus reducing greenhouse gasses coming out the stack.
To achieve this combination of hydrogen and diesel mix, the company added a mounting unit and storage area that contains five H2 tanks with a water capacity of 470 liters and has the ability to store 11.5 kg of H2.
The NH2 is one of the first alternative fuel farm tractors of its kind, and it allegedly doubles the power and torque of a traditional tractor of the same size despite being zero emissions.
Reference- New Holland Newsroom, Inside EVs, Agri-Times, INHABITAT, Full Cell Works website