In addition to gasoline and diesel, other energy sources are also ideal for combustion in an engine. These include, for example, natural gas, hydrogen and mixtures thereof. The application of such fuels offers potential, but also presents significant challenges. FVT focuses on combustion process development for alternative fuels.

In this context, alternative fuels are understood to mean those that differ significantly from liquid fossil fuels. These are mainly hydrogen (H₂) and gaseous hydrocarbons such as natural gas. There are various reasons for using such fuels.

The operation with natural gas allows efficient Otto engine combustion with low CO₂ emissions. Even using fossil-based methane results in up to 25% CO₂ savings. Vehicles that are operated with methane can be found in series production, but with very different market shares depending on the region.

But there are other ways to use the CO₂ advantage of methane, namely in the form of a dual-fuel diesel natural gas combustion process. In this case, in a pilot injection concept, mainly natural gas is burned, which is ignited by a small injection quantity of diesel. In addition, a very good efficiency is achieved. Of course, if methane is produced from renewable primary energy, it will have a balanced carbon footprint.

The use of hydrogen in an internal combustion engine goes one step further. In the production of fuels from CO₂-free electricity, hydrogen is always at the beginning of the numerous conversion steps and thus has the best energy efficiency. The direct use thus gives a better overall efficiency. A hydrogen engine is largely made of conventional technology and is also suitable for bivalent operation with gasoline. Like methane, hydrogen can be ignited with diesel in a dual-fuel combustion process.

The topic of alternative fuels and above all dual-fuel combustion has a long tradition at FVT.