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The worst Best
The fact that pneumomomobi will be able to become a full-fledged replacement for gasoline and diesel transport is still doubt. However, engines operating on compressed air have its unconditional potential. Automobiles on compressed air use an electric pump - a compressor for compressing air to high pressure (300 - 350 atm.) And accumulate it in the tank. Using it for the movement of the pistons, on the like engine internal combustion, work is performed and the car moves on environmentally friendly energy.
1. Novelty technology
Despite the fact that the car with an air engine seems an innovative and even futuristic development, the air force was used in the management of cars back at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. However, the point of reference in the history of the development of air engines should be considered the seventeenth century and developing Dani Papin for the Academy of Sciences of the UK. Thus, the principle of operation of the air engine is open more than three hundred years ago, and even more strange the fact that this technology has not found applications in the automotive industry for so long.
2. Evolution of car air engine
Original engines working on compressed air were used in public transport. In 1872, Louis Mekarski created the first pneumatic tram. Then, in 1898, Houdli and Knight improved the design, extended the engine cycle. Among the founding fathers of the engine on compressed air also often mention the name of the porter Charles.
3. Years of oblivion
Taking into account the long history of the aircraft, it may seem strange that this technology has not received due development in the twentieth century. In the thirties, a locomotive with a hybrid engine worked on compressed air was designed, but the installation of internal combustion engines was the dominant trend in the automotive industry. Some historians are transparently hinting at the existence of the "oil lobby": in their opinion, powerful companies interested in the growth of the market for oil refining products made all possible efforts to study and develop in the field of creating and improving air engines have never been published.
4. The advantages of engines working on compressed air
In the characteristics of air engines it is easy to see many advantages in comparison with internal combustion engines. First of all, it is cheaper and obvious air safety as an energy source. Next, the engine design and car is simplified as a whole: there are no spark plugs, gas tank and engine cooling system; The risk of leakage is excluded charging batteries, as well as pollution of nature by road exhaust. Ultimately, provided mass productionThe cost of engines on compressed air is likely to be lower than the cost of gasoline engines.
However, it will not be without a spoon of tar: according to the experiments carried out, the engines on the compressed air in the work turned out to be more noisy than gasoline engines. But this is not the main drawback: unfortunately, in its performance, they also lag behind internal combustion engines.
5. Future Car Air Engine
The new era for cars running on the compressed air began in 2008, when the former engineer of Formula 1 Guy Negro presented his brainchild called CityCat - a car with an air engine that can develop speed up to 110 km / h and overcome without recharging distance 200 kilometers to turn the starting mode of a pneumatic drive into a worker was spent more than 10 years. Founded with a group of like-minded people, the company began to be called Motor Development International. Her initial project was not pneumatic in the full sense of the word. The first engine of Guy Negro could work not only on compressed air, but also on natural Gas, gasoline and diesel. In the MDI motor, compression processes, flammable mixture, as well as the workforce itself pass in two cylinders of different volumes connecting between the spherical chamber.
We experienced a power plant on the Citroen AX hatchback. On the low speeds (up to 60 km / h), when the power consumption did not exceed 7 kW, the car could only move on the energy of compressed air, but at a speed above the specified mark, the power plant was automatically switched to gasoline. In this case, the engine power grown to 70 horse power. The flow rate of liquid fuel in the highway was only 3 liters per 100 km - the result that any hybrid car will envy.
However, the MDI team did not stop on achieved by resultBy continuing to work on the improvement of the engine on the compressed air, namely, to create a full-fledged pneumomobile, without feeding gas or liquid fuel. The first was the prototype Taxi Zero Pollution. This car "for some reason" did not cause interest from developed countries, while strongly dependent on the oil industry. But Mexico became interested in this development, and in 1997 he concluded an agreement on the gradual replacement of the Mexico City Tax Pack (one of the most polluted megalopolises of the world) to "air" transport.
The next project was the same airpod with a semicircular fiberglass body and 80 kilogram cylinders with compressed air, the full supply of which was enough for 150-200 kilometers of the way. However, the Onecat project was a full-fledged serial pneumatic car - a more modern interpretation of the Mexican taxi Zero Pollution. Up to 300 liters of compressed air can be kept in light and safe carbon cylinders under pressure in a 300 bar.
The principle of operation of the MDI engine is as follows: air is suused in a small cylinder, where it is compressed by a piston under a pressure of 18-20 bar and heated; The heated air goes to a spherical chamber, where he mixed with cold air from cylinders, which instantly expanding and heating, increases the pressure on the piston of a large cylinder transmitting an effort to the crankshaft.
Which methods do not resort to auto manufacturers in order to attract consumer attention. The buyer is milled by fashionable futuristic design, unprecedented safety measures, the use of more eco-friendly engines, etc., etc.
Personally, I do not really touch the last delights of various design studios - even more so: for me, the car was and will remain an inanimate piece of metal and plastic and all the pleasures of marketers tell me how my self-esteem should be rid of the sky after the purchase of "Our the newest model"There is nothing more than a concussion. Well, at least personally for me.
More exciting me as a car owner, the topic - questions of economy and survivability. Fuel is far from three kopecks, besides, there are too many followers of Vasily Alibabaevich on the expanses of "Great and Mighty" from "Gentlemen of Good luck". Switch to the use of alternative fuels of the car manufacturers are trying for a long time. In the US, the electrocars occupied quite strong positions, but it may not be far from acquiring such a machine - it is expensive. Now, if electric was done by the machine of the budget class ...
An interesting goal was set by the French manufacturers of PSA Peugeot Citroen, they initiated an interesting program to reduce fuel consumption. This group of auto manufacturers leads to the development of hybrid power plant Which could spend only two liters of fuel a hundred kilometers of the way. The company's engineers already have something to show - today's operations allow you to save up to 45% of fuel in comparison with ordinary DVS: even with such indicators two liters for a hundred so far not to get out, but by 2020 they promise to conquer this line.
Applications are pretty bold and interesting, but it would be more interesting to take a closer look at this such hybrid and no less economical installation. The system is called Hybrid AIR and how it becomes clear from its name, in addition to traditional fuel, uses air compressed air energy.
The concept of Hybrid Air is not so complicated and is a hybrid of three cylinder engine Internal combustion and hydraulic motor - pump. As tanks for alternative fuel in the central part of the car and under the trunk space, two cylinders are installed: which is more - for low pressure; And the one that is smaller, respectively for high. The acceleration of the car will occur on the engine, after a set of speed of 70 km / h, the hydraulic engine is turned on to operation. Through this hydraulic engine and ingenious planetary transmission, the energy of compressed air will turn into a rotational movement of the wheels. In addition, the energy recovery system also provides a system of energy recovery - during braking, the hydraulic motor acts as a pump and pumps the air into a low pressure cylinder - that is, such a desirable energy will not disappear.
As the company's engineers are stated by a hybrid installation of Hybrid Air, even despite a large mass of 100 kg compared to the traditional motor mass, there will be indicators of fuel economy at a level of at least 45% and this despite the fact that the delights in this area of \u200b\u200bmotor construction are far from Completion.
It is expected that hybrid systems will be the first to be used on Citroen C3 and Peugeot 208 hatchbacks, and you can go on the air in 2016, and as the main sales markets with Hybrid Hybrid Air, French managers see Russia and China.
The world's first serial car with a compressed air engine released indian company TATA, known to the whole world by producing cheap vehicle For poor people.
The TATA Onecat car weighs 350 kg and can pass on one reserve compressed to a pressure of 300 air atmospheres of 130 km, accelerating up to 100 kilometers per hour. But such indicators are possible only with the most filled tanks. The less air density in them, the lower the maximum speed indicator becomes.
4 cylinders, made of carbon fiber with a kevlar shell, length in 2 and a four meter-diameter diameter, are located under the bottom, contain 400 liters of compressed air under pressure of 300 bar.
Inside there everything is very simple:
But this is explained because the car is positioned mainly for use in a taxi. By the way, the idea is not interesting - in contrast to electric vehicles with their problematic recyclable batteries and low efficiency of the charge-impaired cycle (from 50% to 70%, depending on the level of charge and discharge currents), air compression, its storage in the cylinder and subsequent use is quite economical And eco.
If you refuel car TATA. ONECAT air On the compressor station, it will take three or four minutes. "Podkachka" using a mini-compressor built into the car, working from the outlet, lasts three to four hours. "Air fuel" is relatively cheap: If you translate it into a gasoline equivalent, then it turns out that the car spends around the liter per 100 km of way.
In pneumomobile, there is usually no transmission - after all, the pneumotor gives the maximum torque immediately - even in stationary state. The air engine also practically does not require prevention, the normative mileage between the two technical inspections is no small 100 thousand kilometers. And he still practically does not need oil - the Motor is enough liter "Lubricants" by 50 thousand kilometers of run (for ordinary cars You will need about 30 liters of oil).
The secret of the new car is that its four-cylinder engine of 700 cubes and weighing only 35 kilograms works on the principle of mixing compressed air with an outer, atmospheric air. This force aggregate Reminds normal Engine Internal combustion, but the cylinders of it is different diameter - two small, drive, and two large, workers. When the engine is running, the outer air is sucked into small cylinders, shrinking there with pistons and heated. It is then pushed into two working cylinders and mixes there with cold compressed air coming from the tank. As a result, the air mixture expands and leads working pistons, and they - crankshaft Engine.
Since no combustion in the engine does not occur, its "exhaust gases" will only be spent clean air.
Air Engine Developers from MDI Calculated the total energy efficiency in the chain "Nefteragon Plant - a car" for three types of drive - gasoline, electric and air. And it turned out that the efficiency of the air drive is 20 percent, which is more than two times higher than the efficiency of the standard gasoline motor And one and a half times - efficiency of the electric drive. In addition, compressed air can be directly supplied to the future, using unstable renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines - then the efficiency is obtained even higher.
When the temperature is reduced to -20c, the power supply reserve is reduced by 10% without any other harmful effects on its operation, while the power supply of electrical batteries will decrease by about 2 times.
By the way, the air spent in the pneumotor has low temperature And it can be used to cool the car's salon during the hot season, that is, air conditioning you get almost naughty, without excess energy costs. But the heater, alas, will have to do autonomous. But this is much better than an electric car - which is forced to spend energy both on heating and cooling.
By the way, the glass-carbon cylinders are quite safe - they do not explode during damage, they only appear cracks through which the air goes out.
There are no fuel tanks in these cars, nor batteries nor solar batteries. These machines are not needed by hydrogen, nor diesel fuel, nor gasoline. Reliability? Yes, there is almost nothing to break. But who believes today in the perfect solution?
The first car in Australia on the compressed air entered into real commercial operation, recently started his duties in Melbourne.
The device was built by the Australian company Engineair Engineer Angelo di Pietro (Angelo di Pietro).
The main problem on which the inventor thought was to reduce the mass of the engine while maintaining high power and the completeness of the use of compressed air energy.
There are no cylinders and pistons, there is no triangular rotor, like a vankel engine, or a turbine wheel with blades.
Instead, the ring rotates in the motor housing. From the inside it relies on two rollers, eccentric mounted on the shaft.
Engine of the Australian Italian di Pietro in the context (photos from the site gizmo.com.au).
6 separate variables in this expansion machine are cut off by movable semicircular petals installed in the case cuts.
There is another air distribution system across the cameras. That's almost everything.
By the way, the di Pietro engine gives the maximum torque immediately - even in a fixed state and is spinning to quite decent revolutions, so that special transmissions with variable gear ratio He does not need.
So you can arrange a car of a passenger car along the di Pietro system. Two rotary pneumatic motor, one by one on the wheel. And no transmission (illustration from the site gizmo.com.au).
Well, a simplicity of design, small sizes and its low weight is another plus in the piggy bank of the whole idea.
What is the result? Here, for example, the pneumocar from Engineair, which is tested in the warehouse of one of the grocery stores of the Australian capital.
The lifting capacity of this cart is 500 kilograms. The volume of cylinders with air - 105 liters. Mileage at one refueling - 16 kilometers. At the same time, the refueling takes a few minutes. While charging a similar electric car from the network would take hours.
The strange piston connection and crankshaft in the French pneumatic motor allows the piston to stop in the dead point while saving the uniform rotation of the engine output shaft (illustration from the MDI.LU site).
Logically imagine how such a setting greater power can be mounted on a small light cardesigned to move mainly in the city feature.
It is necessary to mention the important advantage of pneumomobors before electric vehicles, which also affect the role of a promising means of movement in the city, caring for air purity.
Accumulators, even simple lead-acid - more expensive cylinders and are pollutants ambient After working out the resource. Batteries are heavy, and electric motors - too. What increases the energy consumption of the machine.
True, when compressing air in the compressors of the station "Pneumatic content", it heats up, and it warmly warm up the atmosphere. This is minus in terms of the total cost and consumption of energy (the same fossil fuel) to refuel similar machines.
But still, in many situations (for centers of megacities), it is better to reconcile with this, having received a car with a zero exhaust in return for a reasonable price.
Pneumatic CityCat's Taxi and Minicat's from Motor Development International (photos from MDI.LU).
Therefore, di Pietro has reason to believe that it is he will be able to bring cars working in the air to "Large Orbit."
Recall the idea to use compressed air as an energy carrier on the vehicle - very old.
One of these patents was issued in the UK in 1799. And, as A. V. Moravian in the book "The History of the Car", at the end of the XIX century, with the creation of reliable cylinders designed for high pressureSuch machines received some dissemination in Europe and the USA - as intrafation technological transport and even - as urban trucks.
However, the energy intensity of compressed air, even if the pressure was adjusted to 300 atmospheres, was low. Gasoline looked completely profitable, and about the contamination of the air hardly someone then thought.
It took another hundred and more years to bring the new generation of inventors again withdrawal pneumomomotivers on the road.
In this new "air" wave, the Australian engineer was not first. Let's say we have already talked about the French Guy Negre.
His company is Motor Development International, engaged in the development and promotion of the original pneumatic motor of the Negro and car on its basis, is still full of rainbow hopes, but there is nothing more about serial production, although there are a lot of experienced samples.
The design of its engine (and, in fact, is a piston motor), we note, constantly undergoes changes. In particular, it is necessary to note the interesting mechanism of the piston and crankshaft communication mechanism, allowing the piston for a while to dwell in the dead point and then with acceleration to break down - with a uniform rotation of the output shaft.
Cat's power unit (illustration from MDI.LU).
This "dance" is needed to have time to submit to the cylinder more air And then it is more fuller to use its expansion.
By the way, another healthy idea is offered by the French.
Negro automobiles can refuel not only directly from the compressor station, but also from the outlet - as electric cars.
In this case, the generator mounted on the pneumotor turns into an electric motor, and the pneumotor itself is in the compressor.
Ecology of consumption. Motor: Famous production of cheap vehicles Indian company TATA has released the world's first serial car with an engine that works on compressed air.
Famous on the whole world, the production of cheap vehicles Indian company TATA has released the world's first serial car with an engine that works on compressed air.
Tata Onecat Weighs 350 kg and can pass on one reserve compressed to 300 atmospheres of air 130 km, accepted at the same time up to 100 km per hour.
According to developers, it is possible to exit such indicators only as possible tanks, a decrease in the density of air in which will lead to a decrease in the maximum speed.
To fill up under the bottom of the car of four carbon filling cylinders in a length of 2 and a quarter meter, each needed 400 liters of compressed air under pressure in a 300 bar. Moreover, the TATA Onecat can be filled both on the compressor station (it takes 3-4 minutes) and from the household outlet. In the latter case, the "swap" with the help of a mini-compressor embedded in the car will last three to four hours.
By the way, the carbonistic cylinders do not explode during damage, but only crack, the release of air.
Unlike electric vehicles, with the batteries of which there are problems on the disposal and low efficiency of the charge-impaired cycle (from 50% to 70%, depending on the level of charge and discharge currents), the machine on the compressed air is fairly economically beneficial and environmental.
Air fuel is relatively cheap if you transfer it to gasoline equivalent, it turns out that the car spends around the liter per 100 km of way.
There are usually no transmission in pneumatic, since the pneumotor gives the maximum torque immediately - even in a fixed state. In addition, air engine It practically does not need prophylaxis: the normative mileage between the two technical inspections is 100 thousand km, and oils - by 50 thousand kilometers, there is enough oil liter (for an ordinary car it would be about 30 liters of oil).
Tata Onecat has a four-cylinder engine of 700 cubes and weighing only 35 kg. It works on the principle of mixing compressed air with an external, atmospheric air. This power unit resembles an ordinary internal combustion engine, but it has a different diameter cylinders - two small, driven, and two large, workers. When the engine is running, the outer air is suused in small cylinders, compressing there with pistons and heated, and then pushed into two working cylinders, where it is mixed with cold compressed air from the tank. As a result, the air mixture expands and moves working pistons, which in turn launch the crankshaft of the engine.
Since no combustion in such an engine is happening, we obtain only spent clean air at the output.
Calculating the total energy efficiency in the chain "Oil refining plant - a car" for three types of drive - gasoline, electrical and air, the developers found that the efficiency of the air drive is 20%, which is more than two times higher than the efficiency of the standard gasoline motor and one and a half times - Electric efficiency. In addition, compressed air can be accumulated from the future, using unstable renewable energy sources, such as wind generators - then you can get even higher efficiency.
As the developers note, with a decrease in temperature to - 20 ° C, the power supply reserve is reduced by 10% without any other harmful effects on its operation, while the energy of electric batteries decreases by about 2 times.
In addition, the air-speaking air motor has a low temperature and can be used to cool the car's interior on hot days. The Tata Onecat owner will have to spend energy only for car heating during the cold season.
The Tata Onecat car, which is characterized by simplicity in design, was developed mainly for use in a taxi. Published
