detoxallright

Air-Powered Cars
For how many years has Gasoline been the main source of fuel for the vehicles especially, cars?

In these recent years, we have to spend a lot of money for the unavoidable high prices of gasoline in order to drive us to wherever places we want by cars. Moreover, our environment is getting worse because of the air pollution especially, in the big city. So these are the main reasons that many leading car manufacturers try to develop the higher technology of the better alternatives for the consumers.
Their development of car fuel is trying to use other alternative energies instead of gasoline. In 2000, two hybrid cars had been launched and demonstrated to the road and the fuel-cell-powered cars will come after within the next three or four years.

The trend of gasoline prices in the United State is getting higher, ($2.66/gallon in 1980) the prices rose by 30% and from December 1999 to October 2000, prices rose an additional 20 percent. Until now, there is no any sign that shows the decreasing trend of gasoline prices anymore. The prices in Europe are even higher, in the countries like England and Netherlands cost more than $4.
The costing is one of the main problems but another problem is the damaging of the valuable world resource which is much more important and very difficult or unable to renew, it will eventually run out.

Air-powered car is a possible alternative. The development of that car will run on compressed air in stead of gasoline.

Two Cylinder Air-Compression Engine

The e.Volution car might run in our town as the first air-powered vehicle motoring within the next 2 or 3 years. It is built by Zero Pollution Motors in Brignoles, France. The e.Volution cars are considered by Mexican government to buy and replace 40,000 of the diesel-powered taxis in the heavy pollution Mexico City.

Manufacture of e.Volution suggests that the cars run on air so they will destroy none or zero of our environment. The cars only move the air pollution from car exhaust to somewhere else, like an electrical power plant. These cars do require electricity in order for the air to be compressed inside the tanks, and fossil fuel power is needed to supply electricity.
The basic concept of the e.Volution or Zero Pollution Motor is unique; the car is powered by a two-cylinder, compressed-air engine.
- It can run either on compressed air alone or act as an internal combustion engine.
Compressed air is stored in carbon or glass fiber tanks at a pressure of 4,351 pounds per square inch (psi). This air is fed through an air injector to the engine and flows into a small chamber, which expands the air. The air pushing down on the pistons moves the crankshaft, which gives the vehicle power.

The Zero Pollution Motor can also work on hybrid version of their engines that is able to run on traditional fuel in combination with air. The car needs an electronical system to control the changing of energy source according to speed of driving. It runs on air at 60 kph and runs on fuel at higher speed. The fuel can be such as gasoline, diesel or natural gas.
The air tank contains 79 gallon (300liters) of air which is fixed to the underside of the car.

This compressed air can fuel the e.Volution for up to 124 miles (200 km) at a top speed of 60 miles per hour (96.5 kph). When your tank nears empty, you can just pull over and fill the e.Volution up at the nearest air pump. Using a household electrical source, it takes about four hours to refill the compressed air tanks. However, a rapid three-minute recharge is possible, using a high-pressure air pump.

Although the car is designed for running mainly on compressed air but it also does require small amount of oil, about .8 liters for every 31,000miles (50,000 km). This time the car also requires the vehicle equipment with an automatic transmission, rear wheels, drive, rack and pinion steering and a 9.5 foot (2.89m) wheel base. It will weigh about 1,543 pounds (700 kg) and will be about 12.5 feet (3.81 m) long, 5.7 feet (1.74 m) tall, and 5.6 feet (1.71 m) wide. In October, at the Auto Africa Expo 2000, the e.Volution made its public debut in Johannesburg, South Africa. Zero Pollution said that the car will go on sale in South Africa in 2002, but didn't say when the car would be available in other parts of the world.

Cryogenic Heat Engine
The researchers of the University of Washington has been developed another version of air-powered car which is using the concept of a steam engine but there is no combustion. This prototype car is LN 2000 that can run on using the liquid nitrogen which is abundance (about 78 %) in the Earth’s atmosphere.
There are five components to the LN2000 engine:

• A 24-gallon stainless steel tank.
• A pump that moves the liquid nitrogen to the economizer.
• An economizer that heats the liquid nitrogen with leftover exhaust heat.
• A heat exchanger that boils the liquid nitrogen, creating a high pressured gas.
• An expander, which converts nitrogen's energy into usable power.

The LN2000 has a tank contained the -320 degree Fahrenheit of liquid nitrogen (-196 degree Celsius), this is extremely cold temperature of nitrogen gas. The cold nitrogen is vaporized by the heat changer, this heat changer is so important that counted to be the heart of the LN2000’s cryogenic engine. The name of cryogenic engine is called from the extremely cold temperature of liquid nitrogen stored in the tank. The liquid nitrogen is boiled by the air moving around the vehicle. Now that the boiled liquid nitrogen turns into gas then forms steam (in the same way that the boiled water in the steam engine).

After that, the nitrogen gas expands about 700 times the volume of its liquid form in the heat exchanger and its high pressure as well. This highly pressurized gas is fed to the expander where the mechanical power comes out from the high pressure of the nitrogen gas, so the engine’s pistons are pushed then the car can run.
The exhaust of nitrogen is a little pollution from the car and nitrogen is our atmosphere’s major part. The little pollution of the exhaust nitrogen will be shift to another location. Even though both of the developed cars, (e. Volution and LN2000) require the electricity to compress the air which have to produce some amount of pollution but this point is considered and solved by increasing recycled system. The leftover heat of the engine’s exhaust is recycled into the economizer to preheat the liquid nitrogen before it go to the heat exchanger. In the rear of vehicles, there are two fans that draw in air through the heat exchanger to enhance the transfer of heat to the liquid nitrogen.

The Washington researchers have developed a crude prototype of their car, using a converted 1984 Grumman-Olson Kubvan mail truck. The truck has a radial five-cylinder that produces 15 horsepower with the liquid nitrogen fuel. It also features a five-speed manual transmission. Currently, the vehicle is able to go only about two miles (3.2 km) on a full tank of liquid nitrogen, and its top speed is only 22 mph (35.4 kph). However, because a liquid nitrogen-propelled car will be lighter, the researchers think that a 60-gallon (227 liters) tank will give the LN2000 a potential range of about 200 miles (321.8 km).
This may be a good alternative for us in the near future to use the developed cars in stead of highly priced-gasoline cars as today.