Internal Combustion Engine Remains Market Main Force

Wu Xiuxia

＂The internal combustion engine(ICE), a classic power plant, will not be eliminated by the decarbonization era,but as an energy conversion device,still has a long way to go for lowcarbon and zero-carbon fuels such as alcohol, hydrogen, ammonia and synthetic fuels.＂ At the 2023 Annual Academic Brand Activity of Annual Conference of the Chinese Society for Internal Combustion Engines(CSICE) -- 2023 Academic Annual Conference of Design and Intelligent Manufacturing held in Shiyan, Hubei province on October 20-22, experts attending the meeting repeatedly stressed that ICE will still be the main force of the market for quite a long time.

The interview with academicians and experts with the theme of ＂China engine carbon neutrality road＂ is the highlight of the conference.Centering on the key links and technologies of the engine industry chain and the power application fields of the industry, the academicians and experts focused on the latest research results and cutting-edge technologies under the＂dual-carbon＂ goals, and discussed the technical path to achieve ＂carbon neutrality＂.

The interview was hosted by CSICE and undertaken by the＂Innovation China＂ Engine Carbon Neutrality Industrial Technology Service Group.At the meeting, the basic consensus reached by the participating experts and scholars is:ICE will exist for a long time in many application scenarios in the future,and will still support the high quality development of the national economy and national defense building;improving ICE efficiency and its power system is the realistic way to reduce carbon and control carbon and a commendable wayout to achieve carbon neutrality or select carbon neutrality fuel; there are many bottlenecks to be broken for ICE technology regarding different fuels with the advent of the fuel diversification era, presenting both opportunity and challenge.

Nearly 300 experts, scholars,engineering and technical personnel and students from the national ICE field attended the event.Centering on themes of the national manufacturing power strategy, digital twin and intelligent manufacturing technology, high strengthening material and structure technology, digital design and simulation technology, they shared and discussed the latest innovation technology and research results, dedicating to the development of the ICE industry and intelligent manufacturing.

ICE embraces multiple power

Th conference invited a number of well-known experts and scholars in the ICE field to give special reports,focusing on technical hot spots and difficulties of the ICE industry,sharing new achievements of ICE R&D, discussing new ways of the ICE development, and jointly solving the industry’s bottleneck problems.

Jin Donghan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering,chairman of CSICE and president of Tianjin University, said that in the power field, diversified energy structure and technical routes are the best way to achieve the ＂dual-carbon＂ goals.In the future, different power systems will play an important role in their respective application scenarios, but it is certain that no single power system can conquer the world.Therefore, around high-end ICE equipment, it has become the broad consensus of the ICE circles to give an overall consideration to each link of product design, manufacturing and sales and service, grasp the development general situation of greenization, low carbonization and intelligentization,accelerate independent innovation of ICE power, continuously enhance the industry’s intelligent level, promote the ICE products toward sustainable development of more efficient, more clean, more intelligent, more reliable direction.

Jin Donghan believes that, as one of the important sources of carbon emissions, ICE is the most potential carbon emission reduction product at present and in the future.Modern ICE has become high- and newtech sophiscated products integrating intelligent control, new materials,advanced design and advanced manufacturing, the deep integration of the Internet, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence with ICE design and manufacturing empowers the whole life cycle of ICE design, manufacturing, operation and maintenance, and this is undoubtedly a realistic and effective important measure to promote transformation and upgrading of the ICE industry and its green development.

Under the new energy technology system, with the advent of the era of fuel diversification, the carbon neutral fuel represented by electronic synthetic fuel and the zero carbon fuel represented by hydrogen and ammonia will gradually replace the traditional fossil fuel.How will the traditional ICE deal with the change of fuel? Li Jun,academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, chairman of China Society of Automotive Engineers and professor of Tsinghua University, believes that the mission of new energy development in the ＂dual-carbon＂ era is to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality,and the most difficult challenge is to achieve net zero emissions.Among them, the key to achieving carbon neutrality in transportation is the independent innovation of zerocarbon power technology and products.Previously, it was predicted that new energy power would begin with hybrids and then move towards pure electric and fuel cells, but this is not the case.In the future, the three principles for the development of new energy power system are: to achieve the goal of ＂dual carbon＂, have commercial competitiveness and strong practicability.

Based on this, Li Jun found a unique way by putting forward a new concept of composite combustion system and thermo-electric composite power system of ICE and fuel cell.Among them, the design concept of ammonia-powered zero-carbon ICE featuring ＂hydrogen loaded with ammonia, hydrogen-driven ammonia,ammonia-hydrogen integration, carbon reduction, energy saving and high efficiency＂ is an active exploration of zero-carbon ICE.On this basis, the＂composite combustion system＂ is also proposed to build an ICE combustion foundation platform ranging from carbon peaking to carbon neutrality.Li Jun believes that building a zerocarbon emission ICE is the future direction.

New technologies keep emerging

Renewable synthetic fuels are transformative technologies for carbon neutrality that can provide entirely new solutions for the energy transition and carbon neutrality.Huang Zhen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and former vice president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University,shared his views on the application prospects of renewable synthetic fuels and the key technical bottlenecks in the preparation of economical synthetic fuels.Currently, Huang's team locks on the target of development of renewable synthetic fuels.

Industrial chain coordination the key

Modern ICE has become a high-tech product integrating multidisciplines and cross-fields.Through the integration of Internet, big data,AI and ICE design and manufacturing industry, intelligent technology is fully integrated into the design and manufacturing of internal combustion engine, which can provide historical opportunities for realizing the powerful country of ICE.

Mao Ming, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of CSICE, said that the ICE industry should take the road of intelligent manufacturing and realize the common development of China's military and civilian ICE technology through complementary technological advantages.ICE businesses should realize the integration of intelligent manufacturing and design, manufacturing software and manufacturing services, so that massive businesses can share big data,intelligent and digital technology,as well as technology accumulation and experience advantages in various aspects.Finally, Mao Ming suggested that ICE workers should keep pace with the times, fully understand the characteristics of the times of technological development, and further strengthen the knowledge reserve of digitalization, informatization and intelligentization.

The green transformation of energy for carbon neutrality is not achieved overnight, nor is it merely an energy and technology issue,but an overall and systemic issue of the industry.Shuai Shijin,executive director of CSICE and professor of Tsinghua University,believes that there are various paths for ICE to achieve carbon neutrality,e.g., biomass fuel ICE, hydrogen ICE,ammonia-hydrogen integrated ICE,methanol ICE, E-fuel CIE, etc., which can be selected according to traffic use scenarios and phased goals of carbon neutrality.

At the same time, he noted that the current popular hybrid in the market is essentially advantages of ICE embracing energy saving, emission reduction and convenience of use brought by＂electricity＂.With the progress of ICE technology, people can no longer view the future ICE products and technologies by using the narrow understanding of ICE only burning fossil fuels.ICE should actively embrace ＂electricity＂and ＂carbon neutral fuel＂, so as to win a broader space for sustainable development.As a transport power,ICE and motor hybrid can complement each other with advantages, and is one of the mainstream technical routes to meet the strict regulations in the future.Shuai Shijin called on ICE industry and energy industry cooperation to actively promote the depth of cooperation among industry, university and research institution, continue to bolster efforts in ICE technology innovation, technology R&D and personnel training, as well as the government policy support,contribute more for the ICE industry to achieve energy conservation and emissions reduction, and carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategic goals.