AIR POWERED VEHICLE

1. FUTURE TRENDS IN
AUTOMOBILES:
AIR POWERED VEHICLES (APVs)
Submitted by:
DHEERAJ KUMAR
ROLL NO – 17
SEMESTER – 7th
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL

2. CONTENT
 Introduction
 Need of the technology
 Compressed air vehicles (CAV)
 Developers and Manufacturers
 Working principle of APVs
 Transformation in I.C engine
 Details of working
 Components of APVs
 Literature Review
 Information from research papers
 Applications and case study
 Future scope
 Conclusion

3. INTRODUCTION
 Fuel crisis, cost of gasoline and many other environmental
aspects have led the leading car manufacturers to develop car
powered by alternative energy sources.
 One possible alternative is the AIR POWER VEHICLES. It is
hard to believe that compressed air can be used to drive vehicles.
 MDI (Motor Development International) is one company that
holds the international patents for compressed air car.
 Compared to fuels like petrol and diesel, compressed air is
favourable because of a high energy density, low toxicity, fast
filling at low cost and long service life. These issues make it
technically challenging to design air engines for all kind of
compressed air driven vehicles.

4. NEED FOR THE TECHNOLOGY
 The stock of fossil fuel reserve is very limited and because of
its tremendous use it is depleting at a faster rate.
 Compressed air being used to power APVs is very cheap and
abundantly available.
 No combustion takes place inside the cylinder this reduces
wear and tear of the components.
 Also there is no possibility of knocking. This in turn results in
smooth working of engine.
 There will not be any need for installing cooling system or
complex fuel injection systems. This makes the design
simpler.

5. COMPRESSED AIR VEHICLES
 A compressed-air vehicle (CAV) is powered by an air engine,
using compressed air, which is stored in a tank. Instead of
mixing fuel with air and burning it in the engine to drive pistons
with hot expanding gases, compressed-air vehicles use the
expansion of compressed air to drive their pistons.

6. DEVELOPERS & MANUFACTURERS
 MDI (Motor Development International), France has proposed a
range of vehicles made up of Air Pod, OneFlowAir, CityFlowAir,
miniFlowAir and MultiFlowAir.
 Air Car Factories South Africa is proposing to develop and build a
compressed air engine.
 APUQ (Association de Promotion des Usages de la Quasiturbine)
has made the APUQ Air Car, a car powered by a quasiturbine.
 Tata Motors, India, as of January 2009 had planned to launch a car
with an MDI compressed air engine in 2011. In December 2009
Tata's vice president of engineering systems confirmed that the
limited range and low engine temperatures were causing problems.

7. WORKING PRINCIPLE OF APVs
 Compressing a gas into a small space is a way to
store energy. When the gas expands again, that
energy is released to do work. That's the basic
principle behind what makes an air car go.
 The compressed is stored into the storage tank.
The air is allowed to pass into the cylinder
through pulsed pressure control valve. The
compressed air expands and causes the piston to
move which in turn rotates the crankshaft.

8. TRANSFORMATION DONE IN
CONVENTIONAL I.C ENGINE
 Spark plug Pulsed pressure control valve
 Governor Electronic timing circuit
 Fuel tank Air vessel
 Cam Modified cam

9. DETAILS OF WORKING
4 stroke operating
cycle

10. 1. Induction stroke
 Engine pulls piston
out of cylinder
 Low pressure
inside cylinder (< 1
atm.)
 Atmospheric
pressure pushes
air into cylinder
 Engine does work
on the pressurised
air during this
stroke

11. 2. Compression stroke
 Engine pushes
piston into cylinder
 Air is compressed to
high pressure and
temperature (700psi,
540oC)
 Pressurised air is
injected as piston
reaches top of
stroke
 Engine does work
on the air during this
stroke

12. 3. Power Stroke
 Pressurised air
expands (2000oC,
1000psi)
 Air push piston out
 Air expand to lower
pressure and
temperature
 Air do work on
engine during this
stroke

13. 4. Exhaust stroke
 Engine pushes piston
into cylinder
 High pressure inside
cylinder
 Pressure pushes the
piston out of cylinder
 Engine does work on
the pressurised air
during this stroke

14. COMPONENTS OF APVs
 Compressed air tank
 Brake power recovery
 Air filter
 Electrical system
 Chassis
 Engine
 Body

15. 2 TYPES OF ENERGY MODES
Single Energy Mode:
It uses only compressed air. The
maximum speed is 50 km/h.
 Dual Energy Mode:
It uses compress air as well as fossil
fuel. At speed over 50 km/h, the
engine will switch to fuel mode.

16. FUELING PROCESS
There are three modes of fuelling tank:
• Air Stations
• Domestic electric plug
• Dual-energy mode

17. LITERATURE REVIEW
 Bharat Raj Singh1 and JP Yadav2 (2011) in their
endeavour have evaluated the performance of
compressed air engines.
 Their preliminary analysis based on the prototype
calculation shows that around 3 cubic metre of air at a
pressure more than 30bar can give a mileage
equivalent to one litre petrol i.e. Rs 64
 Cost of production of one cubic metre of air at a
pressure of 50bar is Rs 3.
 Hence air of Rs 9 can give the mileage of Rs 64 of
petrol.

18. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 They designed the proto type for low speed, the output power;
applied load was also kept low.
 The prime aim being to test the concept of application of with its
related advantages.
Indicated power = ip = p L A n K/ 60,000 kW
Here, K = 2, L = 0.11, A = 0.00079
for 450 RPM
ip = p L A N K/ 60 000 kW
= 05 x 100000 x 011 x 000079 x 450 x2 /60000
= 0.065 kW
Similarly for 570 RPM
ip = 0.165 kW
And for 650 RPM
ip = 0.282 kW

19. COMPARISON WITH EVS
 These comes under zero
emission vehicles.
 Electrical vehicle batteries
use toxic electrolytes,
these electrolytes have to
be mnf.pr produce some
pollution ,battery replaced
every 2-3 years.
 This car use natural air
,compress air more
efficient.
Comp
arison
Nissan Toyot
a
Air
power
ed car
Fuel
type
electric electri
c
Air
powere
d car
Annual
fuel
cost
$331. $391. $220.
Green
house
gas
emissi
ons
3.5 4.1 1.2
Price(
msrp)
$50999
.
$4200
0.
$1400
0.

20. INFORMATION FROM RESEARCH
PAPERS
―Technical benefits:
 The temperature of the engine while
working will be slightly less than the ambient
temperature.
 Smooth working of the engine due to very
less wear and tear of the components.
 There is no possibility of knocking.
 No need of cooling systems and spark plugs
or Complex fuel injection systems

21. ―Economic benefits:
 Reduces the cost of vehicle production by
about 20% as no need to build a cooling
system, fuel tank, Ignition Systems or
silencers.
 Compressors use electricity for generating
 Compressed air which is relatively much
cheaper and widespread.
 Smooth working will lead to less wear &
tear, so lesser maintenance cost

22. APPLICATIONS & CASE STUDY
 Applications
FAMILY CARS VANS
TAXIS PICK-UPS
MINI-CATS BIK
 Case study
The case study of the air powered vehicles is that the TATA MINICAT is
developed. The TATA Motors is get collaboration with the MDI (Motor
Developments International).The TATA MINICAT is get launched on or before
2016, the price of that car is around 6.50-7.50 lakhs.

24. FUTURE SCOPE
 The future scope of the air powered vehicle is
that when we driving the car on the road the
aerodynamic is affected on the car, if we have
done the arrangement on the car that utilizes that
air and send it to the air compressor and send to
the air engine, so the car does not stop for the
reason of refuelling.

25. CONCLUSION
 Air powered cars is a realization of latest
technology in automobile field.
 It eliminates the use of non-renewable fuels
like gasoline, diesel petrol etc, and Thereby
preventing pollution caused by millions of
automobiles all over the world.
 This could be the future of automobiles and
step to a healthier environment