Modern programs focus on swapping technologies, but the damage hitting people and cities now comes from how today’s engines actually burn fuel. In that burn, incomplete combustion creates black carbon—short-lived soot that heats hard while airborne and worsens PM2.5 exposure in the very places engines operate. Because it’s short-lived, cutting it delivers visible climate and health gains on a fast clock, not years from now.
Burn Fuel Better argues that the fastest gains come from changing how fuel burns inside today’s engines. A small, metered dose of hydrogen in the intake improves combustion, which sharply lowers black carbon at the source.
The Problem You Can Actually Solve
CO₂ is the century-scale target. The short-term accelerator is black carbon. It is soot from incomplete combustion. In the air, it absorbs sunlight and converts it into heat. On snow and ice, it darkens the surface, which speeds melting. It is also part of PM2.5 that reaches deep into the lungs. Because black carbon is short-lived, cutting it produces visible progress in weeks and months. That is the lever the book focuses on.
What “Burning Smarter” Really Means
Most programs try to control behavior at the tailpipe. Maintenance, routing, and idling all help. The book’s point is simple. If flame chemistry does not change, soot keeps forming. Burning smarter means introducing a small, controlled amount of hydrogen into the intake air so the same fuel burns more completely inside the cylinder. That change shrinks rich pockets, improves oxidation of soot precursors, and results in a cleaner exhaust before any filter does its job.
What Operators Feel on the Ground
This is not a lab curiosity. Crews notice three things quickly. First, visible smoke drops on the same duty cycle. Second, the after-treatment does less heavy lifting, which reduces fouling. Third, fuel use becomes more stable on routes with lots of stop-start work. The health benefit lies close to home. Less PM near schools, neighborhoods, and job sites means fewer asthma flares and fewer complaints about haze.
A Practical Scenario You Can Copy
You run 25 refuse trucks that pass schools and clinics every weekday. Pick five that log the most hours near people. Take baseline opacity or particulate counts for two weeks. Install hydrogen assist on those five trucks. Run the same routes for two more weeks. Re-measure on the same days and weather windows. If the numbers move in the right direction, expand the retrofit by exposure and hours, not by press release value.
Common Questions
Is this converting to hydrogen fuel?
No. Hydrogen is used as a combustion improver. The primary fuel remains the same.
Is storage required?
The book’s approach uses on-engine generation from water which avoids cylinder logistics.
What if the device fails?
If it is off, the engine returns to normal operation. That is part of the fail-safe design.
Does this replace electrification?
No. It complements it. Retrofitting today’s engines cuts black carbon now while EV programs scale.
The Next Step
Black carbon is the silent accelerator you can actually slow this year. Burning fuel smarter with a small hydrogen assist changes the flame, reduces soot at the source, and delivers near-term health and climate wins with assets you already own. That is the practical path from helpless to hopeful.
Policy Toolkit to Unlock Manufacturer Integration
To move from a proven retrofit on a small slice of engines to solutions that fit entire platforms, policy has to make the target and the reward unmistakable. The goal is simple: measurable cuts in black carbon and PM delivered by engines that integrate small, metered hydrogen dosing at the design stage.
The government can set outcome standards, clear safety and warranty paths, and use purchasing power and finance to pull manufacturers to the table. Once the rules pay for verified reductions rather than specific parts, engine makers will compete to invent multiple safe, reliable ways to introduce hydrogen across sizes and duty cycles.
1) Outcome-based BC/PM standards: Adopt engine-level targets for black carbon and PM reduction that any compliant hydrogen-assist design can meet on standardized duty cycles.
2) OEM credits and accelerated approval: Offer integration credits per certified engine family that includes metered hydrogen in the intake, plus expedited certification when BC/PM targets are achieved with in-cylinder solutions.
3) Procurement pull: Direct public fleets to prefer engines that meet the standard at the factory. Start with school buses, refuse trucks, yard tractors, and harbor craft that operate near people for long hours.
4) Safety, codes, and warranty clarity: Publish a reference safety framework for on-engine hydrogen generation from water and intake dosing. Align with OEM warranty language to remove adoption risk for buyers.
5) Fund measurable pilots, share the data: Back 12-month pilots with open baselines and after-action data: opacity, PM, and black carbon. Make the winning configurations eligible for scale-up grants and low-cost financing.
6) Reward verified reductions: Tie grants, climate funds, and low-interest loans to measured BC/PM cuts, not hardware SKUs. Manufacturers earn by delivering outcomes.
Entice manufacturers to build hydrogen-assist into the engine itself. Once the target is clear and rewarded, the power of human invention will deliver multiple safe, reliable ways to introduce hydrogen across engine sizes and duty cycles.
Want the full playbook with deployment steps and measurement tips? Read Don Owens’s Burn Fuel Better: From Helpless to Hopeful in the Race Against Climate Change. Start with a five-engine pilot, measure the drop in soot, and scale what works.
