One of the most significant problems of our time is the problem of pollution. environment. Every day, humanity emits huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Every car powered by an engine internal combustion, harms our planet and makes ecological situation even worse. Unfortunately, this is not all. The energy problem is no less acute, because oil reserves are not endless, gasoline prices are rising, and there is no reason to reduce them. In search of alternative sources of fuel, many projects have been invented, but all of them are either too expensive or ineffective. Although one of them looks very promising. Judging by it, perhaps the new fuel of the future will be ... air!
Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Is it possible for a car to run on air? Of course it is possible. But this air is not in the form in which we breathe it now - you need compressed air to move a car. Compressed, and under high pressure, the air moves the pistons of the engine, and the car moves! After it has worked in the engine, the air returns to the atmosphere absolutely clean. The tank is enough for 200 kilometers, and the speed is also very impressive - up to 110 kilometers per hour! (Surprisingly, car engines on compressed air have a very long history. This technology was first used back in the 1980s when Louis Mekarski patented his invention called the "pneumatic tram".) This car is not only completely environmentally friendly, it will also save its owner a lot of money! One full charge of compressed air will cost one and a half euros, and in a matter of minutes the car will be ready to travel again. One and a half euros are almost equal in price to two liters of gasoline. Calculate how much your car will drive on two liters - for sure the figure will be much less than 200 kilometers. Indeed, after small and simple calculations, daily refueling of a car with compressed air will cost at least 10 times cheaper! Inventor of this interesting concept, the indefatigable Frenchman Guy Negre, a former Formula 1 engineer, has been working on his project for more than a decade. The original engine layout, similar to a conventional internal combustion engine, made it possible to set the car in motion due to compressed air stored in cylinders. The idea was borrowed by Negr from the design of racing cars, in which a turbine is used for acceleration, fed by compressed air from a special cylinder. Guy Negre started with the original concept of a hybrid car, which at low speeds would move due to air, and at high speeds it would launch conventional engine internal combustion. This car was developed in the mid-90s, but the inventor decided to go even further. The result of 10 years of hard work has been several models that run exclusively on compressed air. Guy Negra's "air car" is based on a motor that is very similar in design to a standard internal combustion engine. The engine has two working and two auxiliary cylinders. Warm air is sucked directly from the atmosphere and additionally heated. Then it enters the chamber, where it mixes with compressed air cooled to -100 degrees Celsius. The air quickly warms up, sharply increases in volume and pushes the piston of the main cylinder, which sets in motion crankshaft. The first prototypes of a purely air car, created by the French from Guy Negra Motor Development International (MDI), were demonstrated in the early 2000s, and now, finally, it has come to the large-scale implementation of this remarkable development. Tata Motors, the largest car manufacturer in India, has agreed with MDI to launch a licensed production of a small three-seat compressed air eco-vehicle. The MiniC.A.T model is equipped with a 90cc carbon fiber tank. m. compressed air. On one gas station with air, the car is able to travel from 200 to 300 km, with a maximum speed of 110 km / h. With the help of compressors installed at gas stations, it will be possible to refuel it in 2-3 minutes, while paying some 1.5 euros. An alternative filling option is also possible using a built-in compressor connected to a conventional network. alternating current. To completely fill the “tank”, it will take 3-4 hours. Despite the fact that electricity is produced mainly by burning fossil fuels, the air eco-car turns out to be much more more efficient than cars with ICE. In terms of efficiency, it exceeds conventional cars by 2 times, and electric cars by 1.5 times. In addition, it is distinguished by the complete absence of harmful emissions, as well as extreme unpretentiousness in maintenance: due to the absence of a combustion chamber, the oil in the engine can be changed no more than every 50 thousand kilometers. Ecomobile MiniC.A.T will be produced in four modifications. They include a triple car model, five seat taxi, mini van and light pickup truck. The cars will sell for about £5,500 (about $11,000), which is very affordable. Tata plans to produce at least 3,000 “air cars” annually. They plan to sell them in Europe and India, but if the project gains popularity, possibly all over the world. The initiative of the Indians was supported by the American company Zero Pollution Motors, which announced the imminent withdrawal to American market cars powered by compressed air and built according to Guy Negre technology. Zero Pollution Motors plans to produce CityCAT vehicles with an engine option (6-cylinder, 75-horsepower Dual-Energy) that allows operation in two modes: simply on compressed air, or using a small amount of fuel to increase the temperature of the air in the cylinders and, accordingly, the power. In this mode, the car consumes about 2.2 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers outside the city. CityCAT is a six-seater car with a spacious trunk. The body consists of fiberglass panels attached to an aluminum frame. The car will be able to drive 60 kilometers in the city on one supply of air, and outside the city with a small consumption of gasoline - 1360 kilometers. The speed of the car when working only on compressed air is 56 km / h, when using gasoline - 155 km / h. Estimated cost car - 17.8 thousand dollars. The first batch should enter the market in 2010. Let's hope that this is not the last step for the development of environmentally friendly modes of transportation. However, reviews of the "air car" in the media gradually turned from enthusiastic to skeptical. About them - below.
In 2000, numerous media, including the BBC, predicted that in early 2002 mass production of cars using air instead of fuel would begin.
The reason for such a bold statement was the presentation of a car called e.Volution at Auto Africa Expo2000, which took place in Johannesburg.
The astonished public was told that e.Volution can travel about 200 kilometers without refueling, while developing a speed 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 of e.Volution 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 (Motor Development International), which immediately announced its intention to start serial production of cars equipped with a compressed air engine. The inventor of the engine is the French engine engineer Guy Negre (Guy Negre), known as the developer starting devices for Formula 1 cars and aircraft engines. Negro said 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, the air is heated up to 400 degrees. Then hot air ejected into a spherical chamber. In the “combustion chamber”, although nothing is burned in it, cold compressed air from the cylinders is also supplied under pressure, it immediately heats up, expands, the pressure rises sharply, the piston of the large cylinder returns and transfers the working force to the crankshaft. You can even say that the "air" engine works in the same way as a conventional internal combustion engine, but there is no combustion here. It was claimed that car emissions were no more dangerous than carbon dioxide emitted by human breathing, the engine could be lubricated with vegetable oil, and the electrical system consisted of only two wires. It takes about 3 minutes to refuel such an air vehicle. Representatives of Zero Pollution said that to refuel the "air car" it is enough to fill the air tanks located under the bottom of the car, which takes about four hours. However, in the future it was planned to build "air filling" stations capable of filling 300-liter cylinders in just 3 minutes. It was assumed that sales of "air cars" will begin in South Africa at a price of about $10,000. There was also talk of building five factories in Mexico and Spain and three in Australia. More than a dozen countries have allegedly already received a license to manufacture the car, and the South African company has allegedly received an order for the production of 3,000 cars, instead of a planned pilot batch of 500 units. But after loud statements and general rejoicing, something happened. All of a sudden, everything was quiet and the “air car” was almost forgotten. The silence is all the more ominous because the official website of Zero Pollution went down some time ago. The reason is ridiculous: the page allegedly cannot cope with a huge flow of requests. However, the creators of the site in a vague form promise to “improve” it someday. The appearance of air cars on the roads was supposed to be a serious challenge to traditional transport. It is believed that the environmentally friendly development was sabotaged by the automotive giants: anticipating the impending collapse, when no one will need the gasoline engines they produce, they allegedly decided to “strangle the upstart” in the bud. This version is partly confirmed by Deutsche Welle: “Auto repair enterprises and oil concerns unanimously consider an air-powered car “unfinished”. However, this can be attributed to their bias. However, many independent experts are rather skeptical, especially since a number of large automotive concerns - for example, Volkswagen - already conducted research in this direction in the 70s and 80s, but then curtailed them due to complete hopelessness. Almost the same opinion is shared by environmentalists: “It will take a very long time to convince automotive manufacturers start production of "air" engines. Automobile companies have already spent a huge amount of money experimenting with electric cars, which have proven to be inconvenient and expensive. They don't need new ideas anymore." Zero pollution - engines with zero emission of harmful substances. In addition, they are lightweight and compact. But Deutsche Welle draws attention to the fact that in various publications "the description of the engine and circuit diagram his works are full of inaccuracies and errors, and, in addition, versions in different languages not only differ considerably, but sometimes directly contradict each other. Almost every edition contains its own, different from others, technical specifications. The spread of numbers is so great that you involuntarily wonder: do they really refer to the same car? Another strange pattern is that with each subsequent publication, the parameters of the car improve: either the power will grow, then the price will fall, then the mass will decrease, then the capacity of the cylinders will increase. So, doubts here are quite appropriate and justified. 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 "inflated" sensation. Meanwhile, it is quite possible that in 2002 the intrigue with the "air car" will not be resolved. As a result of a long search for information on the Web, one more or less "live" site was discovered, which promises mass production of revolutionary cars in 2003. By the way, in the process of searching, a lot of interesting things were found on the "air" topic. It is curious that at the international toy fair held in Nuremberg in February 2001, the Canadian company Spin Master offered buyers a model aircraft equipped with a compressed air engine. The mini tank can be inflated with any pump and the propellers take the original toy into the sky. In addition, the Internet has Commercial offer, addressed, apparently, to the government of Moscow. In this document, one metropolitan company invites officials "to get acquainted with the proposal of the automobile company MDI (France) on the production of absolutely environmentally friendly and economical cars in Moscow." There was also a suggestion by V. A. Konoshchenko, who reports on a car that he invented that runs on compressed air, attaching a description of the device. Rais Shaimukhametov's invention also caught my eye - "Gardener", which is "driven by compressed air: under the hood is a small engine and a 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 of 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. There is evidence that a 33-meter submarine with an engine running on compressed air, designed by the self-taught I.F. Aleksandrovsky, was launched in the summer of 1865, successfully passed a series of tests, and only after that sank. THE NEGRO'S CAR IS AN EXPLOSIVE SENSATIONA startling idea - a car powered by compressed air - turned out to be a myth Sergey LESKOV Known oil reserves on Earth will last no more than 50 years. What are they trying to replace gasoline, which, among other things, is the main source of air pollution in big cities. And liquefied natural gas, and all kinds of synthesized gases and liquids, and even alcohol. For a long time, hopes were pinned on an electric car, but its technical characteristics are low, and the utilization of an energy source turned out to be a problem for the environment. And here is a new, dumbfounding idea - a compressed air car. French engineer Guy Negre earned fame in automotive world with its starters for Formula 1 cars and aircraft engines. There are 70 patents in his design dossier. This suggests that the Negro is not a self-taught one of those who annoy all the automobile firms of the world with their discoveries. A few years ago, the respected Negro created the company MDI (Motor Development International), which was engaged in the development of compressed air engines. The first reaction of any expert is nonsense, whim and again nonsense. But back in 1997, in Mexico, the parliamentary commission on transport became interested in this development, experts visited the factory in Brignole and signed an agreement to gradually replace all 87,000 taxis in Mexico City, the most gnawed capital in the world, with cars with a clean “exhale”. Two years ago, at the Auto Africa Expo 2000, a concept car created by the Negra team called e was presented. Revolution. As promised, he used compressed air as fuel. In Johannesburg, on a wave of public interest, the start of serial production of a miracle car with a Zero Pollution engine was announced in 2002. In South Africa, it was supposed to make 3 thousand e. Revolution. The appointed year in the yard. Where is the "air car"? There are many publications on this topic, but the characteristics jump, as if it were not about technology, but about an Arabian stallion. If we average all the protocols, then the following portrait will come out: e. Volution weighs 700 kg, Zero Pollution motor weighs 35 kg. The car can travel 200 km without refueling. The maximum speed is 130 km/h. At a speed of 80 km / h, it can move for 10 hours. Estimated price - 10 thousand dollars. It takes energy to pump air into cylinders, and power plants are also a source of pollution. The authors of the project calculated the efficiency in the chain "refinery - car" for gasoline, electric and air engines: 9, 13 and 20%, respectively. That is, the "air vent" is in the lead by a noticeable margin. The filling itself takes about 4 hours, and the cylinders are hidden under the bottom. The principle of operation of the "air vent" does not differ from the internal combustion engine. No, due to the lack of fuel, only the combustion itself. No, in addition, ignition systems, fuel injection, gas tank. The air in the cylinders is under pressure of 200 atmospheres. The idea of the designers is as follows: part of the exhaust is sucked into the small cylinder and compressed by the piston to a pressure of 20 atmospheres. Hot air up to 400 degrees is pushed into the chamber, which is an analogue of the combustion chamber. It is supplied with compressed air from cylinders. It heats up - and as a result, the cylinder piston moves, transferring the working force to the crankshaft. As we approach the announced release date, the discrepancies in publications on this topic are becoming more noticeable. It seems that Guy Negro's team is facing serious technical problems. To clarify the situation, Izvestia-Nauka turned to the most authoritative specialists in our country from the State scientific center"Research Automotive and automotive institute(NAMI)". - We calculated the duty cycle of this engine, - said Vladislav Luksho, head of the NAMI gas-cylinder equipment department. - This is another attempt to deceive the fundamental laws of nature, to slip past the rules of thermodynamics. This idea can be developed: to force the driver to pump air with his feet. The idea of an engine in compressed air is absurd, because its efficiency is very low.The energy obtained from mechanical compression per kilogram of weight is 20-30 times inferior to chemical energy hydrocarbon fuel. Gasoline has no competitors. Only nuclear energy has higher indicators. This e . Volution will only be able to travel short distances, like air powered toys fly. A skeptical attitude towards a compressed air engine does not mean at all, NAMI experts are sure of this, that attempts to find an alternative to a gasoline engine are doomed. It has already been possible to achieve tolerable characteristics in gas engines on propane-butane, which are only 1.5 times inferior to a gasoline engine in terms of heat transfer of fuel. In continuation of the precepts of Chonkin's friend Gladyshev, efforts are being made to master the engine on biogas, which is obtained from all sorts of garbage. Hydrogen has great prospects, and its uses are very diverse - from additives to gasoline to liquefaction or use in the form of compounds with metals (hydrides). According to latest developments NAMI, it is better not to burn hydrogen: it reacts in the fuel element, an electric current arises, which is converted into mechanical energy. Another option is alcohol, which is energetically "stronger" than gas, although "weaker" than gasoline. Alcohol-powered engines have become widespread in Brazil. True, in Russia it is not worth talking about the introduction of this design - it's just stupid.
In most countries of the world, cars with internal combustion engines are still the main means of transportation. In the countries of the "golden billion", where the requirements for cars are much higher, the situation looks different - there cars running on electricity and other alternative fuels are now becoming the leading direction in production.
However, the emergence of an electric vehicle as a new standard in the automotive industry did not stop the initiative of scientists and developers of new types of vehicles.
Over the past twenty years, many different prototypes of cars have been created in the world: hydrogen fuel, biofuel, solar panels etc. However, it cannot be stated with certainty that any of these alternatives has real prospects to compete with the "traditional" ones. petrol cars and electric vehicles.
The problem here is that the decisive factor is always the simplicity and cheapness of production, and if an alternative option is unprofitable, then all its other advantages no longer matter much.
In such a situation, the experiments of large automobile companies are much more likely to be recognized and mass-produced. An example of such a development is the Air Hybrid, an innovative hybrid unit consisting of an advanced internal combustion engine and a hydraulic compressor, designed and built by PSA Peugeot Citroen.
This French concern, which combined the potential of two well-known automobile companies, set as its goal the creation of a new type of engine in which compressed air would be used instead of electricity. Air Hybrid has become a successful completion of the next stage of the company's program, which is aimed at reducing fuel consumption in brand cars to a record 2 liters per 100 kilometers.
The revolutionary nature of the Air Hybrid is that such an engine can operate in three modes at once - only on compressed air, on gasoline, and also on air and gasoline at the same time. One of the main advantages of this solution is a significant weight reduction, which in itself is also an important factor in fuel economy.
The hydraulic system not only weighs less, but is also much cheaper to manufacture than traditional system, which includes rechargeable batteries. In addition, hydraulics are more reliable - with it, many complex electronic systems become unnecessary, which in ordinary car too many and which control everything from starting the engine to the built-in breathalyzer.
It should be noted that the built-in professional breathalyzers that test the driver before starting the engine are a popular solution for many European manufacturers cars.
The new hybrid engine from Peugeot Citroen consists of gasoline engine, an adapted transmission of an epicyclic type, where a hydraulic compressor will be used instead of an electric motor.
In the prototype, under the floor of the car, there are two cylinders containing compressed air - one with low pressure air and the other with high pressure.
On compressed air, such a car can move at speeds up to 70 km / h, which is optimal for city trips. When you need to increase speed, you can switch to a gasoline engine, and for extreme acceleration, the engines will work together.
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 for 10 hours at an average speed of 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 a compressed air engine. 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. The hot air is then pushed into the spherical chamber. Cold compressed air from the 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 the crankshaft. You could even say that an “air” engine works in the same way as a conventional internal combustion engine, only there is no combustion here.”
It was claimed that car emissions were no more dangerous than carbon dioxide emitted by human breathing, the engine could be lubricated with vegetable oil, and the electrical system consisted 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 the environmentally friendly development was sabotaged by the automotive giants: foreseeing the impending collapse, when no one would 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. Car companies have already spent huge amounts of money experimenting with electric cars, which have proven 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.
There is a commercial offer on the Internet, apparently addressed to the Moscow government. In this document, one metropolitan company invites officials "to get acquainted with the proposal of the automobile company MDI on the production of absolutely environmentally friendly and economical cars in Moscow."
Of interest is also the invention of Rais Shaimukhametov - a “gardener”, which is “driven by compressed air: under the hood is a small engine and a 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.
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.
Automobile Tata OneCAT weighs 350 kg and can travel 130 km on one supply of compressed air, 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 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 engineers from the local Yamaha company used 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.
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 in 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 of 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, lubricants are not required, and the tightness of the working chamber is increased. 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 the non-waste nature of pneumatic locomotives, they have become widespread in the mine business - when using an internal combustion engine in a confined 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 not very high efficiency gasoline engine, he "gives out" as a result of 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 even more environmentally friendly than an electric car, the structural elements of which contain substances harmful to the environment. 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 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 for mass production, since in cities with a developed bicycle structure, for example, in Amsterdam, such machines 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 Tata weighs a little more, 350 kg, the maximum speed is 100 km/h, the power reserve is 120 km, that is, the 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 vehicle, a 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 sport car Toyota Ku:Rin has 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 cars have 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 to use pneumatic technologies as an additional source of energy in hybrid car is quite real. 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 stock cars setting is not installed.
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.
