Car Runs On Nothing But Air

[BlueGin]

If you're looking for the car of the future, look no further than Peter Dearman's rusty, 25-year-old Vauxhall Nova.


A beer keg sits in the messy trunk. Pipes run through the middle of the car, which is littered with wrenches and loose bolts. Under the hood, a red, plastic garbage can holds anti-freeze that spills over the sides and a piece of wood holds, well, everything else together.


But look beyond the homemade at what's not there: no gas, no batteries. The Dearman engine -- which sounds like a high pitched golf cart -- is powered only by liquid air. This may be the greenest car on the planet.


"We're starting to run out of fossil fuels now. We've got to do something," said Dearman, a full-time inventor. "Hopefully this offers a solution."


Dearman's car works like a steam engine, except instead of steam, he uses very cold air. Air turns into a liquid at minus 300 degrees. In Dearman's car, the liquid air is held in the beer keg before it flows into the engine. As it warms up and begins to boil, it expands back into a gas, pumping the pistons.


All of that has been done before. But what Dearman has added is incredible efficiency and a vision for a totally sustainable car that can be both manufactured and driven with almost zero effect on the environment.

Car Runs on Nothing But Air - ABC News

 

[Mad Scientist]

This looks like a good alternative to Battery Powered cars!

I was gonna' ask what happens when you stop and the "Liquid Air" starts to boil off, but I see it only has a range of 3 miles! Oh well, in due time.

 

[BlueGin]

Apparently this man has found an engineering company that builds engines for Mclaren race cars to help him bulid a better version. And they are going to help him design a gas-air hybrid. Pretty neat if it pans out.

 

[waltky]

BlueGin wrote: Air turns into a liquid at minus 300 degrees.

Hope its got a good heater.

 

[BlueGin]

I actually learned this yesterday because I was curious about how you freeze air. Did you know that you can buy your own parts online to make your very own cryocooler? Well you can...then you just searate the nitrogen from the air, freeze it to turn it into liquid...make your own fuel (for about $ 1.15 per liter) and you are good to go. Not sure where ya get the parts to make your own air run car though.

 

[Underhill]

This idea is not new.

But the problems are the same as battery powered cars. Essentially you are replacing a battery with a air tank. It's a lot like pushing a rock up a hill to watch it roll down.

I think the technology has more potential as a power storage medium for wind farms than for portable use. But we shall see.

 

[varelse]

How much energy does it take to cool/pressurize the air you're using as fuel, and how much energy is released and harnessed to propel the vehicle?

 

[Desperado]

It did a few circles at about 20 to 30 miles an hour. Its range is no more than 3 miles.

Hopefully they can increase their range otherwise it is DOA.

 

[Underhill]

How much energy does it take to cool/pressurize the air you're using as fuel, and how much energy is released and harnessed to propel the vehicle?

You get about a 50% return. Which is in the neighborhood of the best bio fuels.

The biggest problem is the amount of energy. The air expands about 700% in the conversion. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but the size of the tank is prohibitive. For a 200 mile range I think I read the tank would minimally need to be 200+gallons for a relatively small car. Is that possible? Sure. But I'm not sure how realistic it is. You aren't talking about a sheet metal stamped gas tank. It would have to be a high pressure tank that needs to withstand impacts and temperature variants.

Where the process is beautiful is ground storage for windmills. I could see designing a virtually indestructible "battery" that could last hundreds of thousands of cycles as compared to batteries which last hundreds of cycles.

 

[BlueGin]

This idea is not new.

But the problems are the same as battery powered cars. Essentially you are replacing a battery with a air tank. It's a lot like pushing a rock up a hill to watch it roll down.

I think the technology has more potential as a power storage medium for wind farms than for portable use. But we shall see.

I believe that's where this man started off. He set out trying to create more effecient power storage for a nearby power plant,then as an afterthought came up with his version of an air fueled car.

 

[Mr. H.]

How much energy does it take to cool/pressurize the air you're using as fuel, and how much energy is released and harnessed to propel the vehicle?

More importantly, how much wood could a woodchuck chuck?

 

[Politico]

When it goes more than a few miles you should definitely get back with us.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Producing liquid nitrogen is a very energy intensive process being only about 50% efficient.

 

[Underhill]

Producing liquid nitrogen is a very energy intensive process being only about 50% efficient.

True, but then producing biofuels is much the same way.

Using it as energy storage for windmills makes sense as the energy is mostly wasted at night anyway. Storing even 50% would be a vast improvement.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Producing liquid nitrogen is a very energy intensive process being only about 50% efficient.

True, but then producing biofuels is much the same way.

Using it as energy storage for windmills makes sense as the energy is mostly wasted at night anyway. Storing even 50% would be a vast improvement.

But you don't store 50%

No matter how good your insulated containers are there is always loss to evaporation.

I just don't see a liquid nitrogen vehicle as practical for mass production.

Biodiesel would be a better option as we already have the infrastructure and delivery methods in place.

 

[Underhill]

Producing liquid nitrogen is a very energy intensive process being only about 50% efficient.

True, but then producing biofuels is much the same way.

Using it as energy storage for windmills makes sense as the energy is mostly wasted at night anyway. Storing even 50% would be a vast improvement.

But you don't store 50%

No matter how good your insulated containers are there is always loss to evaporation.

It's a sealed pressurized tank.

The whole point is that it takes 50% more energy to pressurize and liquify the air as you get out of it. Essentially the same as the best biofuels.

I just don't see a liquid nitrogen vehicle as practical for mass production.

Biodiesel would be a better option as we already have the infrastructure and delivery methods in place.

Maybe. But I have yet to see bio-fuels produced in large quantities in a sustainable method. Corn is obviously not worthwhile when you look at it honestly. There are some good bacteria and algae based solutions, or so I have read. But none of them are in large scale production yet. So I am waiting and watching.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2008/jun/26/algae

You may be right. But the biofuels on the market now are certainly not the solution.