Gaseous lubricity additives for hydrogen gas
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
There is great interest in using hydrogen as a gaseous fuel in combustion engines to eliminate CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, hydrogen gas is a poor lubricant for most engineering metals and an effective lubrication solution for pumping and injecting hydrogen is required. This study explores the possibility of additivating hydrogen with a low concentration of a lubricious gas to reduce friction and wear. We find that unsaturated hydrocarbon gas additives form protective carbon-based tribofilms, while gaseous ammonia and amine additives form nitrogen-based films on steel surfaces during rubbing in additivated hydrogen. Gaseous amines are particularly effective in reducing friction and wear, even at concentrations as low as 100 ppm mole/mole. This demonstrates that the addition of a small concentration of lubricious gas is a feasible way to improve the lubricity of gaseous hydrogen.
Date Issued
2025-01-01
Date Acceptance
2024-11-23
Citation
Tribology Transactions, 2025, 68 (1), pp.90-100
ISSN
1040-2004
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group
Start Page
90
End Page
100
Journal / Book Title
Tribology Transactions
Volume
68
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
License URL
Identifier
10.1080/10402004.2024.2435424
Subjects
Gas-phase lubrication
hydrogen
tribofilm formation
gaseous additives
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2025-01-08