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Bibliometric study on dual-fuel injection

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4.7 Bibliometric study on dual-fuel injection

12CNIT-2022 - FULL PAPER
,,,,
Bibliometric study on dual-fuel injection

Juan Manuel Rueda Vázquez1, Jesús Tejada Hernández1, Sara Pinzi1, M.ª del Pilar
Dorado Pérez1

1
Dept. Physical Chemistry and Applied Thermodynamics, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus de
Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario, ceiA3, Córdoba, 14071, Spain

Keywords: H2; compression ignition engine; alternative fuel.

TOPIC: FUELS, COMBUSTION, PYROLYSIS AND GASIFICATION

1. Introduction
Climate change is the most complex and serious environmental problem of this century. The level
of greenhouse gas emissions derived from the transport sector is increasing, due to the growth of
the world’s vehicle fleet. In Spain, vehicles were responsible for 27.7% of direct CO2 emissions
from fuel combustion, in 2020 [1].
Restrictions imposed by European regulations on emissions from compression ignition (CI)
engines used in transportation are becoming increasingly stringent. Therefore, researching new
technologies and fuels that reduce pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions is essential for this
sector. The partial replacement of fossil fuels by carbon-free fuels leads to the reduction of CO2
emissions (the main cause of global warming). So, the viability of CI engines depends on the
sustainable production of eco-fuels (biodiesel, pyrolytic fuels, etc.) which partially replace
petroleum-derived fuels, maintaining similar properties.
H2 cannot be used as the only fuel in a traditional CI engine. The high flash point of this fuel
makes it necessary to use a fuel with a lower flash point to act as a combustion activator [2]. The
operation mode in which liquid fuel is injected into the combustion chamber as a source of
ignition and another gaseous fuel is injected into the chamber or the intake manifold is called
dual-fuel mode.
The mixture between alternative eco-fuels mentioned above with H2 improves engine efficiency
and reduces CO2 emissions, since the amount of carbon involved in combustion is reduced. The
high flammability range allows working with a wide range of air-gas mixtures, and its high
diffusivity in the air provides a more homogeneous mixture, which favors complete combustion
[3-5]. The increase in H2 flow rate causes the reduction of emissions associated with fuel carbon
content (CO, HC, PM and CO2). However, NOx emissions are higher due to the increase in the
heat released rate and the temperature inside the combustion chamber [6–8]. So, combining H2
injection with techniques to reduce NOx emissions, such as exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) or
selective catalytic reduction is needed [9].
A bibliometric study, which is a rigorous method for exploring and analyzing large volumes of
scientific data (publications) through quantitative and statistical analysis, has been carried out. It
will help describe the development of a line of research over time, identifying new trends [10].
This bibliometric study aims to collect information about the use of H2 in CI engines in dual-fuel
mode, to understand the necessary modifications to convert a CI engine to a dual-fuel engine,
focusing on results obtained in terms of performance and exhaust emissions.
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2. Materials and methods

The data search for this bibliometric analysis was carried out in the Web of Science (WoS),
Clarivate (London, UK). This database is used as both a research tool for wide knowledge
domains and a dataset for large-scale data-intensive studies [11]. Microsoft Excel (Redmon, USA)
and VOSviewer version 1.6.18 (Leiden University, Netherlands) were used for the analysis and
evaluation of the results obtained and the development of graphs and tables. Figure 1 shows the
methodology described above in a flowchart.

Figure 1. Methodology flowchart

Initial search was based on collecting all articles indexed in WoS which were related to the topic
(diesel engines and hydrogen). It was observed that within the topics (title, keywords and abstract)
of the collected manuscripts, H2 was referred to as “H2” and “H-2”, and CI engine was mentioned
as “diesel engines” or “compression ignition engines”. Then, using the advanced search tool of
WoS, all these terms were included in the search: [(TS=hydrogen) OR (TS=H2) OR (TS=H-2)]
AND [(TS="diesel engine*") OR (TS="compression ignition engine*") OR (TS= "dual fuel")].
In this initial search, 3068 publications were obtained.

After this first search, it was observed the initial database could contain publications in which H2
was combined with any other fuel under dual-fuel mode without being CI engines. Thus, some
publications analyzed performances and/or emissions in a spark ignition (SI) engine fueled with
gasoline and H2 or articles in which H2 appeared in the summary when emissions were discussed.
Therefore, articles that dealt with SI engines, i.e. works including in their title or keywords the
words “gasoline”, “spark” or “SI”, were excluded. In this way, the abstract of the publication
could make some reference to SI engines as a possible comparison without being the main topic
of the research.

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Next, to bring the search closer to the objective of acquiring the information to adapt a CI engine
from a test blench to a dual-fuel engine running on H2, “exhaust emissions” and “performance”
were introduced, and necessary words in the database topics. Thus, the final advanced search was
as follows: [(TS=hydrogen) OR (TS=H2) OR (TS=H-2)] AND [(TS="diesel engine*") OR
(TS="compression ignition engine*") OR (TS="dual fuel")] AND [(TS=performance) OR
(TS="exhaust emission*")] NOT [(TI=GASOLINE) OR (TI=SPARK) OR (AK=GASOLINE)
OR (AK=SI) OR (TI=SI)] AND [(AK=HYDROGEN) OR (AK=H2) OR (AK=H-2)]. In this
research, the database was limited to 564 publications.

Within the selected WoS category, the search was refined by selecting only documents in English,
reducing the database to 524. There are publications since 2002, but it is not until 2010 that the
number of manuscripts dealing with the use of H2 in CI engines begins to significantly increase.
Therefore, 480 articles published between 2010 and 2021, in English, were finally selected from
the WoS database (excluding conference proceedings, reviews, etc.)

A first analysis with the WoS results analysis tool, filtering the articles in the database by authors,
year of publication, or organization to which the authors belong, was performed. To perform a
more exhaustive analysis of all these parameters, the file generated by WoS that contained all the
bibliometric information of the selected database was exported to Microsoft Excel.

The number of articles published by each country was counted using the WoS results analysis
tool. It was observed that the total number of publications by countries exceeded 480, in the
database. WoS analysis tool was counting the same article for every country and organization that
had contributed to its development, regardless of authorship order. Using the file imported to
Microsoft Excel, a macro to only consider articles with the country of the first author’s
organization was developed. Microsoft Excel was also used to plot the number of publications
and citations of the topic in the selected period, as well as main journals publishing about this
topic.

The bibliometric map was made with VOSviewer software. This software generates schemas from
WoS, Scopus, Lens, Dimensions, or PubMed databases in which the different relationships
between initial bibliographic data can be observed.

To analyze the collaboration between researchers from different countries with publications in
the database, a co-authorship with countries as the unit of analysis was performed. The number
of times that authors and journals cited each other was analyzed. For this purpose, a study of co-
citation considering cited authors and cited sources as a unit of analysis was carried out. Finally,
co-occurrence with author keywords represents the ratio of the number of publications in which
the main selected words appear together.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Number of publications per year

The knowledge on the use of H2 in dual-fuel CI engines can be measured by the trends in the
published literature. Figure 2 shows the temporal distribution of 480 selected publications from
2010 to 2021. The number of times these publications are cited in each of these years is also
included.

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90 3000
80
80
71 2500
70
60 55 56 2000
Publications

Cites/year
50 46
1500
40
31 29
30 26 26 1000
23
18 19
20
500
10
0 0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Publications Cites/year

Figure 2. Number of publications and cites per year.

Results show that between 2010 and 2016, the number of publications remains almost constant,
with an average of 24.57 publications per year. From 2016 onwards, there is a large increment in
the number of publications and the number of citations, with a clear upward trend that confirms
the continuous development of this topic.
3.2. Publications and collaborations between countries

According to results from WoS, publications about the use of H2 in CI engines came from 57
countries. Figure 3 shows the top ten countries with the highest number of publications about this
topic, from 2010 to 2021. The origin of the first author listed in each publication (whether this
author belongs to an organization of that country, or else is another author) is also included.

160 149
144
140
120
Publications

100
80 6560
60 52
45
40 32 28
24 2323 2423
18 1512 16 1510
20 10

ANY AUTHOR FIRST AUTHOR

Figure 3. Top 10 most productive countries in terms of H2 as fuel for CI engine publications.

The top 10 countries account for a total of 369 publications, almost 77% of the global number of
publications (480), being India, China and Turkey the top three (52%) with a huge difference over
the rest. It is also important to note that most of these countries’ publications had been written by

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a first author from the same country. 45 out of the previously mentioned 57 countries have at least
one publication in which the first author belongs to that country, while the remaining 12 countries
do not have any first author in these publications.

The top 10 publications with the highest citation are collected in Table 1. It may be seen that all
publications were indexed in Journal Citation Ranking (JCR), from Clarivate (London, UK) and
placed in the first quartile (Q1). Also, 9 out of 10 have been published by countries in the top 10
of the most productive countries, according to previously mentioned criteria.

Table 1. Top 10 most cited publications.

Quartile
and JCR
Title Year Journal Country Cited
year of
publication
Effect of hydrogen on ethanol- ECOTOXICOLO
biodiesel blend on performance and GY AND
2016 Q1 (1.225) India 109
emission characteristics of a direct ENVIRONMENT
injection diesel engine AL SAFETY
An experimental investigation of
FUEL
effect on diesel engine performance
2013 PROCESSING Q1 (1.61) Turkey 107
and exhaust emissions of addition
TECHNOLOGY
at dual fuel mode of hydrogen
Comparative study on combustion
and emissions between methanol ENERGY
port-injection engine and methanol CONVERSION
2019 Q1 (2.924) China 105
direct-injection engine with H-2- AND
enriched port-injection under lean- MANAGEMENT
burn conditions
INTERNATION
Hydrogen assisted diesel AL JOURNAL
2010 Q1 (1.579) USA 104
combustion OF HYDROGEN
ENERGY
Combustion, performance,
regulated and unregulated APPLIED
2014 Q1 (3.158) China 103
emissions of a diesel engine with ENERGY
hydrogen addition
Effect of H-2/O-2 addition in
increasing the thermal efficiency of 2010 FUEL Q1 (1.957) Australia 102
a diesel engine
Performance and emission studies
on port injection of hydrogen with APPLIED
2010 Q1 (1.531) India 92
varied flow rates with Diesel as an ENERGY
ignition source
Effect of H-2:CO ratio in syngas on APPLIED
the performance of a dual fuel 2012 THERMAL Q1 (1.492) India 90
diesel engine operation ENGINEERING
Effect of hydrogen addition to INTERNATION
intake gas on combustion and AL JOURNAL
2011 Q1 (1.443) Japan 86
exhaust emission characteristics of OF HYDROGEN
a diesel engine ENERGY
Experimental investigation of the
INTERNATION
combustion characteristics,
AL JOURNAL
emissions and performance of 2014 Q1 (1.207) Turkey 80
OF HYDROGEN
hydrogen port fuel injection in a
ENERGY
diesel engine

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In addition, to increase the knowledge about collaboration between countries, country co-
authorship has been analyzed. 84 out of analyzed 480 articles involve collaboration between
countries, which represents 17.5% of the publications. Figure 4 shows the relationship between
countries which share one or more publications. Countries have been filtered to only include those
with at least 3 publications. In this sense, 30 out of 57 countries with publications meet this
condition. However, it is important to note that a high number of publications is not directly
proportional to significant collaboration between countries. In fact, countries such as India, which
has 14 times more publications than Malaysia, has only 16 collaborations (10.73% of the total),
while the latter has 10 (62.5% of the total).

Figure 4. Collaboration between countries. Frame size refers is proportional to the number of publications
per country.

3.3. More relevant journals on the topic

Most relevant journals on this topic have been analyzed. Our database is composed by 106
different journals. There are several ways for ranking journals, such as the number of published
papers, or the number of citations. Figure 5 shows the top 10 journals with more publications,
joining in a single mixed group the rest of them. Those journals have published a total of 346 out
of 480 publications. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (188 publications) is the dominant
journal in terms of number of publications, followed by Fuel (50 publications) and Energy (29
publications).

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Other
28%

Therm. Sci. Int. J. Hydrog.

1% Energy
Energies 39%
2%
Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev.
2%
Energy Source Part A:
Recovery Util. Environ. Eff.
2%
Appl. Therm. Eng.
2% Energy Convers. Energy
Appl. Energy Manag. Fuel 6%
3% 4% 11%

Figure 5. Top 10 of the journals with higher number of publications.

Among the 480 publications in the database, there are citations from 3473 journals. To have
clearer results, the search has been filtered so that only journals which have been cited at least 60
times are considered. The number of journals that meet this criterion is 30. Figure 6 shows the co-
citations between journals with this filtered search.

Figure 6. Co-citations between journals. Frame size refers to the number of journal publications; node
colour indicates a group of journals closely related and with a high citation between them.

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The number of citations and the number of publications are linked, but with some exceptions.
Journals as Energy Source Part A: Recovery Util. Environ. Eff. has the same number of
publications as Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev (11 vs 9). However, there is a big difference in the
number of citations (58 and 499, respectively). It is important to mention that the last one only
covers review publications, that usually gather more citations than regular manuscripts.

3.4. Keywords analysis

The articles in the database contain 1089 keywords. The search has been refined to only consider
those words that appear at least in 9 articles, providing 37 keywords that meet this criterion. Figure
7 shows the co-occurrences between these keywords, i.e., publications in which two keywords
appear together in the same manuscript.

Figure 7. Co-occurrence publication keywords. Frame size refers to the number of times that a keyword
appears in a publication; node colour indicates groups of words that are used simultaneously as keywords.

The most repeated keywords are hydrogen (301 times) since it is one of the search conditions.
Other common keywords are diesel engine (82), combustion (75) and emissions (61). Other words
are not implemented in the search criteria, though also appear in the publications, such as biodiesel
(34), which reinforces the premise of combining eco-fuels with H2 to continue the use and
development of CI engines. NOx (25) reminds the importance of these emissions in CI engines,
when H2 is introduced, due to the temperature increment into the combustion chamber.

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3.5. Co-citation network between authors

The articles in the database cite a total of 7020 authors. Figure 8 shows the co-citation network
between authors (30) who meet the minimum threshold of 60 citations as first author. This map
allows an overview of the most important researchers in this topic, and feedback between them
(cross-citation).

Figure 8. Co-citation authors.

This figure only shows authors who have a connection with each other. The more linkers an author
have, the more cited is. It is observed the great number of linkers between different authors, which
leads to great feedback between them. The most cited author is Nagaran Saravanan, from Anna
University, in India, with a total of 15 publications about the use of H2 in CI engines in dual-fuel
mode, from 2007 to 2010 and 424 citations of his publications, from 2010 to 2021.

4. Conclusions
This bibliometric study has shown that the use of H2 in CI engines is a widely studied topic by
the scientific community. It has also shown the growing interest in the research of this topic,
considered as an alternative to improve exhaust emissions of current engines.
The main conclusions are as follows. From 2016 onwards, there is a large increment in both
publications and citations, with a clear upward trend that confirms the continuous development
of this topic. India, China, and Turkey are the top three countries that have published about the
use of H2 in CI engines. Regarding collaboration between countries, there is a small percentage
of publications that had involved collaboration between countries. However, a high number of
publications is not always linked to a high number of citations, since there are journals than,
despite the high number of publications, the citation number is low, and vice versa. Then,
keywords such as hydrogen, emissions, or combustion are normally used in these publications,
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but others, such as biodiesel or NOx indicate different lines of research that are studied in these
publications. Finally, cross-citation between authors shows great feedback between them.

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