1. Compressed Air Engine
Seminar Guide:
Dr. S Mondal
Presented by :
Abhishek Agarwal
(101603)
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2. Brief Recapitulation
What is an engine?
 An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful
mechanical motion.
 Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion
engines (such as steam engines) burn a fuel to create heat, which then
creates motion.
 Electric motors convert electrical energy into mechanical motion, pneumatic
motors use compressed air and others—such as clockwork motors in wind-up
toys—use elastic energy.
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3. Types of Engines
Engines
Combustion
engines
Internal
Combustion
Engines
External
Combustion
Engines
Non-
combustive
engines
Electric
Motor
Physically
powered
Motor
Pneumatic
motor
Hydraulic
motor3

4. 4

5. History
 The pneumatic motor was first applied to the field of transportation in the
mid-19th century.
 Frenchmen Andraud and Tessie of Motay ran a car powered by a pneumatic
motor on a test track in Chaillot, France, on July 9, 1840.
 An air powered car is a car that uses an engine powered by compressed air.
 Invented by Guy Nègre, a French engineer; in 1991 started Moteur
Development International (MDI), Luxembourg.
 The car can be powered solely by air or combined (as in a hybrid electric
vehicle) with gasoline, diesel & ethanol.
The first compressed air vehicle 5

6. Problems associated with the use of IC
engines
 Use of gasoline results in pollution and damage to the environment.
 The emission of CO2 also results in Global Warming.
 The fossil fuels are present in limited quantity and are depleting at a very
fast pace.
 Cost of petroleum products is increasing by leaps and bounds.
 High maintenance cost involved.
 Complexity of design.

7. COMPRESSED AIR ENGINE
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A compressed air engine is a type of motor which does mechanical work by
expanding compressed air.
A compressed air engine generally convert the compressed air energy to
mechanical work through either linear or rotary motion.
Linear motion can come from either a diaphragm or piston actuator, while
rotary motion is supplied by either a vane type air motor or piston air motor.

8. Guy Negre presenting the air car- AIRPOD
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9. Recent Developments
Energine
 The Energine Corporation was a South Korean company that claimed to
deliver fully assembled cars running on a hybrid compressed air and electric
engine.
 The compressed-air engine is used to activate an alternator, which extends
the operating capacity of the car.
K'Airmobiles
 K'Airmobiles vehicles were intended to be commercialized from a project
developed in France in 2006-2007 by a small group of researchers. However,
the project has not been able to gather the necessary funds.
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10. EngineAir
 EngineAir, an Australian company, is making a rotary engine powered by
compressed air, called The Di Pietro motor.
 The Di Pietro motor concept is based on a rotary piston
 the Di Pietro motor uses a simple cylindrical rotary piston (shaft driver) which
rolls, with little friction, inside the cylindrical stator. It can be used in boat,
cars, burden carriers and other vehicles.
 Only 1 psi (6,8 kPa) of pressure is needed to overcome the friction. The
engine was also featured on the ABC's New Inventors programme in Australia
on 24 March 2004.
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11. Air Car by Engineair
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12. MDI (Motor Development International)
 In the original Nègre air engine, one piston compresses air from the
atmosphere to mix with the stored compressed air (which will cool drastically
as it expands).
 This mixture drives the second piston, providing the actual engine power.
 MDI's engine works with constant torque, and the only way to change the
torque to the wheels is to use a pulley transmission of constant variation,
losing some efficiency.
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13. Building Compressed Air Engine From
Conventional Engine
 To convert a conventional IC engine into an Air Powered one, few components
are to be replaced.
 First of all replace the spark plug with
a pulsed pressure control valve which
can create required pressure.
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14.  Now the pulsed air firing in this valve is controlled by controlling the supply of
electrical signal to the plunger.
Now fuel tank is to be replaced with air vessel as it requires pressurized air as input.
And two things are to be taken care while designing air vessel:
 1) First is its strength to withstand high internal pressure, which exists due to
compressed air.
 2) Second is its capacity to store air and its weight.
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15.  Replace cam with a modified cam.
 This is to be done, so that both the inlet and outlet valves open and close at
the same time.
 Main advantage of doing this is to achieve better scavenging system.
 Also this will result in conversion of 4 stroke engine into 2 stroke air engine,
which in turn gives us the benefit of low mean effective pressure requirement
in addition to other operational benefits.
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16. 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.
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1 Bharat Raj Singh, Associate Director, SMS Institute of Technology, Lucknow
2 JP Yadav, Associate Professor, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture & Technology

17. 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 17

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19. Information from other 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
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20. 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
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21. A Proven fact:
Research by MDI shows that an Air Powered Car can travel 171 km by using
electricity costing about Rs. 80-100 which would cost about Rs. 570 for a normal
S.I. engine car giving an average of 15 kmpl
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22. Major Technical Limitations
1. When air expands it cools dramatically and must be heated to ambient
temperature using a heat exchanger similar to the Intercooler used for
internal combustion engines.
 The heating is necessary in order to obtain a significant fraction of the
theoretical energy output.
 The heat exchanger can be problematic.
 While it performs a similar task to the Intercooler the temperature
difference between the incoming air and the working gas is smaller.
 In heating the stored air, the device gets very cold and may ice up in cool,
moist climates.
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23. Major Technical Limitations (contd.)
2. Tanks get very hot when filled rapidly.
 SCUBA tanks are sometimes immersed in water to cool them down when
they are being filled.
 That would not be possible with tanks in a car and thus it would either
take a long time to fill the tanks, or they would have to take less than a
full charge, since heat drives up the pressure.
3. Limited capacity of storage tanks.
4. Limited Range (140- 150 Km.)
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24. References
 STUDY AND DEVELOPMENT OF COMPRESSED AIR ENGINE- SINGLE CYLINDER: A
REVIEW STUDY Mistry Manish K., Dr.Pravin P.Rathod ,Prof. Sorathiya Arvind S.
 AIR POWERED ENGINE (2011)Prof. B. S. PATEL, Mr R S BAROT, KARAN
SHAH,PUSHPENDRA SHARMA
 Study and Fabrication of Compressed Air Engine(2011) Bharat Raj Singh and JP
Yadav (2011)
 Sullivan, M. World's First Air-Powered Car: Zero Emissions by Next Summer, Popular
Mechanics http://www. popularmechanics.
 Harley, M.; Ford, G.M. Considering Joint Engine Development
 Russell, C. The Air Car becomes a Reality,
http://cambrown.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/the-air-car-becomes-a-reality/
(accessed May 2007).
 Moteur Development International (MDI)
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