At the beginning of the century, numerous media prophesied that the mass production of cars using air instead of fuel was about to begin.
The reason for such a bold statement was the presentation of a car called e.Volution at the Auto Africa Expo-2000 exhibition, which took place in Johannesburg. The astonished public was told that e.Volution can travel about 200 kilometers without refueling, reaching speeds of up to 130 km / h. Or within 10 hours of average speed 80 km/h It was stated that the cost of such a trip would cost the owner 30 cents. At the same time, the machine weighs only 700 kg, and the engine - 35 kg.
The revolutionary novelty was presented by the French company MDI, which immediately announced its intention to start serial production of cars equipped with an engine compressed air. The inventor of the engine is the French engine engineer Guy Negre, known as the developer of starting devices for Formula 1 cars and aircraft engines.
The inventor stated that he managed to create an engine that runs exclusively on compressed air without any impurities of traditional fuel. The Frenchman called his brainchild Zero Pollution, which means zero emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.
The motto of Zero Pollution was "Simple, economical and clean", that is, the emphasis was placed on its safety and harmlessness to the environment. The principle of operation of the engine, according to the inventor, is as follows: “Air is sucked into a small cylinder and compressed by a piston to a pressure level of 20 bar. At the same time, it warms up to 400 degrees. Then hot air ejected into a spherical chamber. Cold compressed air from cylinders is also supplied to the “combustion chamber” under pressure, it immediately heats up, expands, the pressure rises sharply, the piston of the large cylinder returns and transfers the working force to crankshaft. It can even be said that the “air” engine works in the same way as conventional engine internal combustion, but there is no combustion here.”
It was stated that car emissions are no more dangerous than carbon dioxide emitted by human breathing, the engine can be lubricated with vegetable oil, and electrical system consists of only two wires. It was planned to build "air filling" stations capable of filling 300-liter cylinders in just three minutes. It was assumed that sales of "air cars" will begin in South Africa at a price of about 10 thousand dollars.
But after loud statements and general rejoicing, something happened. All of a sudden, everything was quiet, and the "air car" was almost forgotten. The reason is ridiculous: the page on the Internet supposedly cannot cope with the huge flow of requests.
It is believed that environmental development was sabotaged automotive giants: foreseeing the approaching collapse, when no one will need the gasoline engines they produce, they allegedly decided to strangle the upstart in the bud.
However, many independent experts are rather skeptical, especially since a number of large automotive concerns, for example, Volkswagen, were already conducting research in this direction in the 70-80s, but then curtailed them due to complete hopelessness. Automobile companies already spent a lot of money experimenting with electric cars which proved to be inconvenient and expensive.
However, the wait was not long. Probably, already in the coming year we will find out exactly what this compressed air engine developed by MDI is - a revolution in the automotive industry or in every sense of the word an inflated sensation.
The Internet has Commercial offer, addressed, apparently, to the government of Moscow. In this document, one metropolitan company invites officials to “read the proposal automotive company MDI on the production of absolutely environmentally friendly and economical cars in Moscow”.
Of interest is the invention of Rais Shaimukhametov - a “gardener”, which is “driven by compressed air: under the hood small engine and serial compressor. Air rotates autonomously from each other two blocks (left and right) of eccentric rotors (pistons). The rotors in the block are connected by a caterpillar chain through the running wheels.
As a result, there was a double impression: on the one hand, the story with the French “air car” is not fully understood, and on the other hand, a much clearer feeling that “air” transport has been used for a long time, and especially for some reason in Russia. And besides, from the century before last.
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Worst Best
The fact that pneumatic vehicles can become a full-fledged replacement for gasoline and diesel vehicles is still in doubt. However, compressed air engines have their own unconditional potential. Compressed air vehicles use electric pump– compressor for compressing air up to high pressure(300 - 350 Atm.) and accumulate it in the tank. Using it to move the pistons, like an internal combustion engine, work is done and the car runs on clean energy.
1. Novelty of technology
Despite the fact that the air-powered car seems innovative and even futuristic, the power of air was used in driving cars as early as the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. However, the starting point in the history of the development of air engines should be considered the seventeenth century and the development of Dany Papin for the British Academy of Sciences. Thus, the principle of operation of the air engine was discovered more than three hundred years ago, and it seems all the more strange that this technology did not find application in the automotive industry for so long.
2. The evolution of air-powered cars
Compressed air engines were originally used in public transport. In 1872, Louis Mekarski created the first pneumatic tram. Then, in 1898, Hoadley and Knight improved the design by extending the engine cycle. Among the founding fathers of the compressed air engine, the name of Charles Porter is also often mentioned.
3. Years of oblivion
Pay attention to long history air engine, it may seem strange that this technology was not developed properly in the twentieth century. In the thirties, a locomotive was designed with hybrid engine, which worked on compressed air, but the installation of internal combustion engines has become the dominant trend in the automotive industry. Some historians transparently allude to the existence of an "oil lobby": in their opinion, powerful companies interested in the growth of the market for petroleum products made every possible effort to ensure that research and development in the field of creating and improving air engines was never published.
4. Advantages of compressed air engines
It is easy to see many advantages in the characteristics of air engines in comparison with internal combustion engines. First of all, it is cheapness and obvious safety of air as a source of energy. Further, the design of the engine and the car as a whole is simplified: it lacks spark plugs, a gas tank and an engine cooling system; eliminates the risk of leakage rechargeable batteries, as well as pollution of nature by automobile exhausts. Ultimately, provided mass production, the cost of compressed air engines is likely to be lower than the cost of gasoline engines.
However, it will not do without a fly in the ointment: according to the experiments, compressed air engines in operation turned out to be noisier than gasoline engines. But this is not their main drawback: unfortunately, in terms of their performance, they also lag behind internal combustion engines.
5. The future of air-powered cars
A new era for compressed air vehicles began in 2008, when former Formula 1 engineer Guy Negre unveiled his CityCat, an air-powered car that can reach speeds of up to 110 km/h and cover distances without recharging. 200 kilometers To turn the starting mode of the pneumatic drive into a working one, more than 10 years have been spent. Founded with a group of like-minded people, the company became known as Motor Development Internation. Her original design was not a pneumomobile in the full sense of the word. Guy Negre's first engine could run not only on compressed air, but also on natural gas, petrol and diesel. In the MDI engine, compression, ignition processes combustible mixture, as well as the working stroke itself, pass in two cylinders of different volumes, interconnected by a spherical chamber.
We tested the power plant on a Citroen AX hatchback. On 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 automatically switched to gasoline. In this case, the engine power increased to 70 Horse power. Liquid fuel consumption in highway conditions was only 3 liters per 100 km - a result that anyone would envy hybrid car.
However, the MDI team did not stop at achieved result, continuing work on the improvement of the compressed air engine, namely on the creation of a full-fledged pneumatic vehicle, without replenishing gas or liquid fuel. The first was the Taxi Zero Pollution prototype. This car "for some reason" did not arouse interest among developed countries, at that time heavily dependent on the oil industry. But Mexico became interested in this development, and in 1997 concluded an agreement on the gradual replacement of the Mexico City taxi fleet (one of the most polluted megacities in the world) with "air" transport.
The next project was the same Airpod with a semicircular fiberglass body and 80-kilogram compressed air cylinders, the full supply of which was enough for 150-200 kilometers. However, the OneCat project, a more modern interpretation of the Mexican Zero Pollution taxi, has become a full-fledged serial pneumatic vehicle. Up to 300 liters of compressed air can be stored in light and safe carbon cylinders at a pressure of 300 bar.
The principle of operation of the MDI engine is as follows: air is sucked into the small cylinder, where it is compressed by a piston under a pressure of 18-20 bar and heated; heated air goes into a spherical chamber, where it mixes with cold air from cylinders, which instantly expands and heats up, increases pressure on the piston of a large cylinder that transmits force to the crankshaft.
First in the world stock car with a compressed air engine Indian company Tata, known throughout the world for the production of cheap vehicles for poor people.
Automobile Tata OneCAT weighs 350 kg and can travel 130 km on one stock of air compressed to a pressure of 300 atmospheres, while accelerating up to 100 kilometers per hour. But such indicators are possible only with the maximum filled tanks. The lower the air density in them, the lower the maximum speed indicator becomes.
4 cylinders made of carbon fiber with a Kevlar shell, 2 long and a quarter of a meter in diameter each, located under the bottom, contain 400 liters of compressed air at a pressure of 300 bar.
Inside, everything is very simple:
But this is understandable, since the car is positioned mainly for use in a taxi. By the way, the idea is not without interest - unlike electric vehicles with their problematic recyclable batteries and low efficiency of the charge-discharge cycle (from 50% to 70% depending on the level of charge and discharge currents), air compression, its storage in a cylinder and subsequent use are quite economical and environmentally friendly.
If Tata OneCAT is filled with air at the compressor station, it will take three to four minutes. “Pumping” with the help of a mini-compressor built into the machine, powered by an outlet, lasts three to four hours. " air fuel” is relatively cheap: if you translate it into a gasoline equivalent, it turns out that the car consumes about a liter per 100 kilometers.
In an air car, there is usually no transmission - after all, the air motor produces maximum torque immediately - even when stationary. air engine also practically does not require prophylaxis, standard mileage between two technical inspections is no less than 100 thousand kilometers. And he practically does not need oil - a liter of "grease" is enough for the engine for 50 thousand kilometers (for ordinary car about 30 liters of oil will be required).
The secret of a new car is that it four-cylinder engine with a volume of 700 cubes and a weight of only 35 kilograms, it works on the principle of mixing compressed air with outside, atmospheric air. This power unit resembles a conventional internal combustion engine, but its cylinders are of different diameters - two small, drive, and two large, working. When the engine is running outdoor air is sucked into small cylinders, compressed there by pistons and heated. Then it is pushed into two working cylinders and mixed there with cold compressed air coming from the tank. As a result air mixture expands and sets in motion the working pistons, and they - the crankshaft of the engine.
Since no combustion occurs in the engine, its " exhaust gases» will only exhaust clean air.
Air engine developers from MDI calculated the total energy efficiency in the chain "refinery - car" for three types drive - gasoline, electric and air. And it turned out that the efficiency of the air drive is 20 percent, which is two times once again exceeds the efficiency of a standard gasoline engine and one and a half times - the efficiency of the electric drive. In addition, compressed air can be stored directly for future use, using unstable renewable energy sources such as wind turbines - then the efficiency is even higher.
When the temperature drops to -20C, the energy reserve of the pneumatic drive is reduced by 10% without any other harmful effects for its operation, while the energy reserve of electric batteries will decrease by about 2 times.
By the way, the air exhausted in the air motor has low temperature and can be used to cool the car interior in the hot season, that is, you get air conditioning almost for free, without unnecessary energy costs. But the heater, alas, will have to be made autonomous. But this is much better than an electric car - which has to spend energy on both heating and cooling.
By the way, glass-carbon fiber cylinders are quite safe - if damaged, they do not explode, only cracks appear in them through which air escapes.
A few years ago, the news spread around the world that the Indian company Tata was going to launch a series of a car powered by compressed air. Plans remained plans, but pneumatic vehicles have clearly become a trend: every year there are several quite viable projects, and Peugeot planned to put an air hybrid on the conveyor in 2016. Why did pneumatic cars suddenly become fashionable?
Everything new is well forgotten old. So, electric cars at the end of the 19th century were more popular than gasoline counterparts, then they survived a century of oblivion, and then again “rose from the ashes”. The same applies to pneumatics. As early as 1879, French aviation pioneer Victor Tatin designed the A? roplane, which was supposed to take to the air thanks to a compressed air engine. A model of this machine flew successfully, although the aircraft was not built in full size.
The ancestor of air motors on land transport was another Frenchman, Louis Mekarski, who developed a similar power unit for Parisian and Nantes trams. The machines were tested in Nantes in the late 1870s, and by 1900 Mekarski owned a fleet of 96 trams, proving the system's effectiveness. Subsequently, the pneumatic "fleet" was replaced by an electric one, but a start was made. Later, pneumatic locomotives found a narrow scope of widespread use - mine business. At the same time, attempts began to put an air engine on the car. But until the beginning of the 21st century, these attempts remained isolated and not worthy of attention.
Pros: no harmful emissions, the possibility of refueling a car at home, low cost due to the simplicity of the engine design, the possibility of using an energy recuperator (for example, compression and accumulation of additional air due to vehicle braking). Cons: low efficiency (5−7%) and energy density; the need for an external heat exchanger, since when the air pressure decreases, the engine is very supercooled; low performance indicators pneumatic vehicles.
Air Benefits
A pneumatic motor (or, as they say, a pneumatic cylinder) converts the energy of the expanding air into mechanical work. According to the principle of operation, it is similar to hydraulic. The "heart" of the air motor is the piston to which the rod is attached; a spring is wound around the stem. The air entering the chamber, with increasing pressure, overcomes the resistance of the spring and moves the piston. In the exhaust phase, when the air pressure drops, the spring returns the piston to its original position - and the cycle repeats. The pneumatic cylinder may well be called an "engine of internal non-combustion."
A membrane scheme is more common, where a flexible membrane plays the role of a cylinder, to which a rod with a spring is attached in the same way. Its advantage lies in the fact that such a high accuracy of fit of moving elements is not needed, no lubricants, and the tightness of the working chamber increases. There are also rotary (lamellar) pneumatic motors - analogues of the Wankel internal combustion engine.
The tiny three-seater pneumatic car of the French MDI was presented to the general public at Geneva Motor Show 2009. He has the right to move on dedicated bike paths and does not require driving license. Perhaps the most promising pneumatic car.
The main advantages of the air motor are its environmental friendliness and low cost"fuel". Actually, due to wastelessness, pneumatic locomotives have become widespread in the mine business - when using internal combustion engines in enclosed space the air is quickly polluted, sharply worsening working conditions. The exhaust gases of the air motor are ordinary air.
One of the disadvantages of the pneumatic cylinder is the relatively low energy density, that is, the amount of energy generated per unit volume of the working fluid. Compare: air (at a pressure of 30 MPa) has an energy density of about 50 kWh per liter, and ordinary gasoline - 9411 kWh per liter! That is, gasoline as a fuel is almost 200 times more efficient. Even taking into account the not very high efficiency gasoline engine it "gives out" as a result about 1600 kWh per liter, which is much higher than the performance of the pneumatic cylinder. This limits all performance indicators of air motors and machines driven by them (power reserve, speed, power, etc.). In addition, the air motor has a relatively low efficiency - about 5-7% (against 18-20% for internal combustion engines).
Pneumatics of the 21st century
The urgency of environmental problems of the 21st century forced engineers to return to the long-forgotten idea of using a pneumatic cylinder as an engine for a road vehicle. In fact, a pneumatic car is more environmentally friendly even than an electric car, the structural elements of which contain harmful environment substances. In the pneumatic cylinder there is air and nothing but air.
Therefore, the main engineering task was to bring the pneumocar to a form in which it could compete with electric vehicles in terms of performance characteristics and cost. There are many pitfalls in this business. For example, the problem of air dehydration. If there is at least a drop of liquid in the compressed air, then due to strong cooling, when the working fluid expands, it will turn into ice, and the engine will simply stall (or even require repair). Normal summer air contains approximately 10 g of liquid per 1 m 3 , and when filling one cylinder, additional energy (about 0.6 kWh) must be expended on dehydration - and this energy is irreplaceable. This factor negates the possibility of high-quality home refueling - dehydration equipment cannot be installed and operated at home. And this is just one of the problems.
Nevertheless, the theme of the pneumatic car turned out to be too attractive to forget about it.
on a full tank and full refueling air Peugeot 2008 Hybrid Air can travel up to 1300 km.
Straight to the series?
One of the solutions to minimize the disadvantages of the air motor is to lighten the car. Indeed, the city minicar is not needed large stock movement and speed, but environmental indicators in the metropolis play a significant role. This is exactly what the engineers of the Franco-Italian Motor company Development International, which at the Geneva Motor Show 2009 introduced the MDI AIRpod and its more serious version of the MDI OneFlowAir to the world. MDI started “fighting” for a pneumatic car back in 2003, showing the Eolo Car concept, but only ten years later, having filled a lot of bumps, the French came to an acceptable solution for the conveyor.
MDI AIRpod is a cross between a car and a motorcycle, a direct analogue of a wheelchair "invalid", as it was often called in the USSR. With a 5.45-horsepower air engine, a three-wheeled minicar weighing only 220 kg can accelerate to 75 km / h, and its range is 100 km in basic version or 250 km in a more serious configuration. Interestingly, the AIRpod does not have a steering wheel at all - the car is controlled by a joystick. In theory, she can move like on roads common use as well as bike paths.
AIRpod has every chance of mass production, since in cities with a developed bicycle structure, for example, in Amsterdam, such cars may be in demand. One air refueling at a specially equipped station takes about one and a half minutes, and the cost of transportation is about 0.5 per 100 km - it’s simply nowhere cheaper. Nevertheless, the declared period of mass production (spring 2014) has already passed, and things are still there. Perhaps MDI AIRpod will appear on the streets of European cities in 2015.
The cross-country motorcycle, built by Australian Dean Benstead on a Yamaha chassis, is capable of accelerating to 140 km / h and driving non-stop for three hours at a speed of 60 km / h. The Angelo di Pietro air engine weighs only 10 kg.
The second pre-production concept is famous project Indian giant Tata, MiniCAT car. The project was launched simultaneously with AIRpod, but, unlike the Europeans, the Indians included in the program a normal, full-fledged microcar with four wheels, a trunk and a traditional layout (in AIRpod, we note that passengers and the driver sit with their backs to each other). The mass of Tata is slightly larger, 350 kg, maximum speed- 100 km / h, power reserve - 120 km, that is, MiniCAT as a whole looks like a car, not a toy. Interestingly, Tata did not bother with developing an air engine from scratch, but for $28 million they acquired the rights to use MDI designs (which allowed the latter to stay afloat) and improved the engine to propel a larger vehicle. One of the features of this technology is the use of heat released during the cooling of expanding air to heat the air when filling cylinders.
Initially, Tata was going to put the MiniCAT on the assembly line in mid-2012 and produce about 6,000 units per year. But the run-in continues, and mass production has been postponed until better times. During development, the concept managed to change its name (previously it was called OneCAT) and design, so no one knows which version of it will eventually go on sale. It seems even representatives of Tata.
On two wheels
The lighter the compressed air vehicle, the more efficient it is in terms of performance and economics. The logical conclusion from this statement is why not make a scooter or a motorcycle?
This was taken care of by the Australian Dean Benstead, who in 2011 demonstrated to the world motocross bike O 2 Pursuit with a powertrain developed by Engineair. The latter specializes in the already mentioned rotary air engines designed by Angelo di Pietro. In fact, this is a classic “wankel” layout without combustion - the rotor is driven by air supply to the chambers. Benstede went in reverse when developing. First, he ordered an Engineair engine, and then built a motorcycle around it, using a frame and some elements from the serial Yamaha WR250R. The car turned out to be surprisingly energy efficient: at one gas station it travels 100 km and, in theory, develops a maximum speed of 140 km/h. These figures, by the way, exceed those of many electric motorcycles. Benstede wittily played on the shape of the balloon, inscribing it in the frame - this saved space; the engine is twice as compact as its gasoline counterpart, and free place allows you to install a second tank, doubling the mileage of the motorcycle.
But, unfortunately, O 2 Pursuit remained only a disposable toy, although it was nominated for the prestigious invention award established by James Dyson. Two years later, Benstede's idea was picked up by another Australian, Darby Bicheno, who proposed to create, in a similar way, not a motorcycle, but a purely urban one. vehicle, scooter. His EcoMoto 2013 is supposed to be made out of metal and bamboo (no plastic), but it hasn't progressed beyond renderings and blueprints.
In addition to Benstede and Bicheno, a similar car was built in 2010 by Evin Y Yan (his project was called Green Speed Air Motorcycle). All three designers, by the way, were students of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and therefore their projects are similar, use the same engine and ... do not have a chance for a series, remaining research work.
In 2011 sports Toyota car Ku: Rin set the world speed record for vehicles powered by compressed air. Usually pneumatic cars do not accelerate to more than 100-110 km / h, while the Toyota concept showed an official result of 129.2 km / h. Due to the “sharpening” for speed, Ku: Rin could travel only 3.2 km on one charge, but more than a three-wheeled single car was not required. The record has been set. Interestingly, before that the record was only 75.2 km / h and was set in Bonneville by the Silver Rod car designed by American Derek McLeish in the summer of 2010.
Corporations at the start
The above confirms that air vehicles there is a future, but, most likely, not in a “pure form”. Still, they have their limitations. The same MDI AIRpod failed absolutely all crash tests, because its ultra-light design did not properly protect the driver and passengers.
But using pneumatic technology as an additional source of energy in a hybrid car is quite realistic. In this regard, Peugeot announced that from 2016, part of the Peugeot 2008 crossovers will be produced in a hybrid version, one of the elements of which will be the installation of Hybrid Air. This system was developed in collaboration with Bosch; its essence is that the energy of the internal combustion engine will be stored not in the form of electricity (as in conventional hybrids), but in cylinders with compressed air. Plans, however, remained plans: on this moment on serial cars installation is not put.
Peugeot 2008 Hybrid Air will be able to move using the energy of the internal combustion engine, air power unit or their combinations. The system itself will recognize which of the sources is more energy efficient in a given situation. In the urban cycle, in particular, 80% of the time the energy of compressed air will be used - it sets in motion a hydraulic pump that rotates the shaft when the internal combustion engine is turned off. The total fuel savings with this scheme will be up to 35%. When working in clean air, the maximum vehicle speed is limited to 70 km/h.
The Peugeot concept looks absolutely viable. Given the environmental benefits, such hybrids may well replace electric ones over the next five to ten years. And the world will become a little cleaner. Or it won't.
Of all the modern alternatives to cars with an internal combustion engine, the most unusual and interesting look vehicles working compressed air. Paradoxically, there are already many such vehicles in the world. We will talk about them in today's review.
Australian Darby Bicheno has created an unusual motorcycle-scooter called EcoMoto 2013. This vehicle does not run on an internal combustion engine, but on the impulse given by compressed air from cylinders.
In the production of EcoMoto 2013, Darby Bicheno tried to use only environmentally friendly materials. No plastic - only metal and puff bamboo, from which most parts of this vehicle are made.
It's not a car yet, but it's not a motorcycle either. This vehicle also runs on compressed air and at the same time has relatively high technical characteristics.
The AIRpod tricycle weighs 220 kilograms. It is designed to carry up to three people, and is controlled using a joystick on front panel this semi-auto.
AIRpod can drive on one full supply of compressed air 220 kilometers, while developing a speed of up to 75 kilometers per hour. Filling the tanks with "fuel" is carried out in just one and a half minutes, and the cost of movement is 0.5 euros per 100 km.
And the world's first mass-produced car with a compressed air engine was produced by the Indian company Tata, known throughout the world for the production of cheap vehicles for poor people.
The Tata OneCAT vehicle weighs 350 kg and can travel 130 km on a single supply of compressed air, while accelerating to 100 kilometers per hour. But such indicators are possible only with the maximum filled tanks. The lower the air density in them, the lower the average velocity becomes.
And the speed record holder among the currently existing compressed air vehicles is a car. In tests that took place in September 2011, this vehicle accelerated to 129.2 kilometers per hour. True, he managed to drive only a distance of 3.2 km.
It should also be noted that the Toyota Ku:Rin is not a serial passenger vehicle. this machine created specifically in order to demonstrate the ever-increasing speed capabilities of machines with compressed air engines in demonstration races.
The French company Peugeot is giving a new meaning to the term "hybrid car". If earlier it was considered a car that combines an internal combustion engine with an electric motor, then in the future the latter can be replaced by a compressed air engine.
Peugeot 2008 will be the first in the world in 2016 serial car equipped with the innovative Hybrid Air power plant. It will allow you to combine driving on liquid fuel, on compressed air and in combined mode.
Yamaha WR250R - the first compressed air motorcycle
The Australian company Engineair has been developing and manufacturing compressed air engines for many years. It was their products that the engineers from the local branch used. Yamaha to create the world's first motorcycle of this type.
True, there are no Aeromovel trains own engine. Powerful jets of air come from the rail system along which it moves. At the same time, the absence power plant inside the composition itself makes it very easy.
Now Aeromovel trains operate at the airport in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre and at the Taman Mini theme park in Jakarta, Indonesia.
