Dept Of Mechanical Cryocar

ABSTRACT

Cryogens are effective thermal storage media which, when used for automotive purposes, offer significant advantages over current and proposed electrochemical battery technologies, both in performance and economy. An automotive propulsion concept is presented which utilizes liquid nitrogen as the working fluid for an open Rankine cycle. The principle of operation is like that of a steam engine, except there is no combustion involved. Liquid nitrogen is pressurized and then vaporized in a heat exchanger by the ambient temperature of the surrounding air. The resulting high pressure nitrogen gas is fed to the engine converting pressure into mechanical power. The only exhaust is nitrogen. The usage of cryogenic fuels has significant advantage over other fuel. Also, factors such as production and storage of nitrogen and pollutants in the exhaust give advantage for the cryogenic fuels.

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Dept Of Mechanical Cryocar

CONTENTS

Chapter 1
1.1 Introduction3 1.2 History4 1.3 Description.5

Chapter 2
2.1 Factors6 2.2 Working..8 2.3 Power Cycle...11 2.4 Performance Of The Operating Cycle13 2.5 Liquid Nitrogen Manufacture...14

Chapter 3
3.1 Advantages....15 3.2 Disadvantages....17

References

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Dept Of Mechanical Cryocar

CHAPTER 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION The importance of cars in the present world is increasing day by day. There are various factors that influence the choice of the car. These include performance, fuel, pollution etc. As the prices for fuels are increasing and the availability is decreasing we have to go for alternative choice. Here an automotive propulsion concept is presented which utilizes liquid nitrogen as the working fluid for an open Rankine cycle. When the only heat input to the engine is supplied by ambient heat exchangers, an automobile can readily be propelled while satisfying stringent tailpipe emission standards. Nitrogen propulsive systems can provide automotive ranges of nearly 400 kilometers in the zero emission modes, with lower operating costs than those of the electric vehicles currently being considered for mass production. In geographical regions that allow ultra low emission vehicles, the range and performance of the liquid nitrogen automobile can be significantly extended by the addition of a small efficient burner. Some of the advantages of a transportation infrastructure based on liquid nitrogen are that recharging the energy storage system only requires minutes and there are minimal environmental hazards associated with the manufacture and utilization of the cryogenic "fuel". The basic idea of nitrogen propulsion system is to utilize the atmosphere as the heat source. This is in contrast to the typical heat engine where the atmosphere is used as the heat sink.

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1.2 HISTORY

Researchers at the University of Washington are developing a new zero-emission automobile propulsion concept that uses liquid nitrogen as the fuel. The principle of operation is like that of a steam engine, except there is no combustion involved. Instead, liquid nitrogen at 320 F (196 C) is pressurized and then vaporized in a heat exchanger by the ambient temperature of the surrounding air. This heat exchanger is like the radiator of a car but instead of using air to cool water, it uses air to heat and boil liquid nitrogen. The resulting high-pressure nitrogen gas is fed to an engine that operates like a reciprocating steam engine, converting pressure to mechanical power. The only exhaust is nitrogen, which is the major constituent of our atmosphere.

The LN2000 is an operating proof-of-concept test vehicle, a converted 1984 Grumman-Olson Kubvan mail delivery van. Applying LN 2 as a portable thermal storage medium to propel both commuter and fleet vehicles appears to be an attractive means to meeting the ZEV regulations soon to be implemented. Pressurizing the working fluid while it is at cryogenic temperatures, heating it up with ambient air, and expanding it in reciprocating engines is a straightforward approach for powering pollution free vehicles. Ambient heat exchangers that will not suffer extreme icing will have to be developed to enable wide utility of this propulsion system. Since the expansion engine operates at subambient temperatures, the potential for attaining quasi-isothermal operation appears promising. The engine, a radial five-cylinder 15-hp air motor, drives the front wheels through a five-speed manual Volkswagen transmission. The liquid nitrogen is stored in a thermos-like stainless steel tank. At present the tank is pressurized with gaseous nitrogen to develop
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system pressure but a cryogenic liquid pump will be used for this purpose in the future. A preheater, called an economizer, uses leftover heat in the engine's exhaust to preheat the liquid nitrogen before it enters the heat exchanger. The specific energy densities of LN2 are 54 and 87 W-h/kg-LN2 for the adiabatic and isothermal expansion processes, respectively, and the corresponding amounts of cryogen to provide a 300 km driving range would be 450 kg and 280 kg. Many details of the application of LN2 thermal storage to ground transportation remain to be investigated; however, to date no fundamental technological hurdles have yet been discovered that might stand in the way of fully realizing the potential offered by this revolutionary propulsion concept
1.3 DESCRIPTION Liquid nitrogen is generated by cryogenic or Sterling engine coolers that liquefy the main component of air, nitrogen (N2). The cooler can be powered by electricity or through direct mechanical work from hydro or wind turbines. Liquid nitrogen is distributed and stored in insulated containers. The insulation reduces heat flow into the stored nitrogen; this is necessary because heat from the surrounding environment boils the liquid, which then transitions to a gaseous state. Reducing inflowing heat reduces the loss of liquid nitrogen in storage. The requirements of storage prevent the use of pipelines as a means of transport. Since long-distance pipelines would be costly due to the insulation requirements, it would be costly to use distant energy sources for production of liquid nitrogen. Petroleum reserves are typically a vast distance from consumption but can be transferred at ambient temperatures. Liquid nitrogen consumption is in essence production in reverse. The Sterling engine or cryogenic heat engine offers a way to power vehicles and a means to generate electricity. Liquid nitrogen can also serve as a direct coolant for refrigerators, electrical equipment and air conditioning units. The consumption of liquid nitrogen is in effect boiling and returning the nitrogen to the atmosphere.

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CHAPTER 2
2.1 FACTORS EFFECTING CRYOCARS COST OF PRODUCTION Liquid nitrogen production is an energy-intensive process. Currently practical refrigeration plants producing a few tons/day of liquid nitrogen operate at about 50% of Carnot efficiency. ENERGY DENSITY OF LIQUID NITROGEN Any process that relies on a phase-change of a substance will have much lower energy densities than processes involving a chemical reaction in a substance, which in turn have lower energy densities than nuclear reactions. Liquid nitrogen as an energy store has a low energy density. Liquid hydrocarbon fuels by comparison have a high energy density. A high energy density makes the logistics of transport and storage more convenient. Convenience is an important factor in consumer acceptance. The convenient storage of petroleum fuels combined with its low cost has led to an unrivaled success. In addition, a petroleum fuel is a primary energy source, not just an energy storage and transport medium. The energy density derived from nitrogen's isobaric heat of vaporization and specific heat in gaseous state that can be realized from liquid nitrogen at atmospheric pressure and zero degrees Celsius ambient temperature is about 97 watt-hours per kilogram (W-hr/kg). This compares with about 3,000 W-hr/kg for a gasoline combustion engine running at 28% thermal efficiency, 30 times the density of liquid nitrogen used at the Carnot efficiency. For an isothermal expansion engine to have a range comparable to an internal combustion engine, an 350-litre (92 US gal) insulated onboard storage vessel is required [2]. A practical volume, but a noticeable increase over the typical 50-litre (13 US gal) gasoline tank. The addition of more complex power cycles would reduce this requirement and help enable frost free operation. However, no commercially practical instances of liquid nitrogen use for vehicle propulsion exist. FROST FORMATION

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Unlike internal combustion engines, using a cryogenic working fluid requires heat exchangers to warm and cool the working fluid. In a humid environment, frost formation will prevent heat flow and thus represents an engineering challenge. To prevent frost build up, multiple working fluids can be used. This adds topping cycles to ensure the heat exchanger does not fall below freezing. Additional heat exchangers, weight, complexity, efficiency loss, and expense, would be required to enable frost free operation.

SAFETY However efficient the insulation on the nitrogen fuel tank, there will inevitably be losses by evaporation to the atmosphere. If a vehicle is stored in a poorly ventilated space, there is some risk that leaking nitrogen could reduce the oxygen concentration in the air and cause asphyxiation. Since nitrogen is a colorless and odourless gas that already makes up 78 % of air, such a change would be difficult to detect. Cryogenic liquids are hazardous if spilled. Liquid nitrogen can cause frostbite and can make some materials extremely brittle. As liquid N2 is colder than 90.2K, oxygen from the atmosphere can condense. Liquid oxygen can spontaneously and violently react with organic chemicals, including petroleum products like asphalt Since the liquid to gas expansion ratio of this substance is 1:694, a tremendous amount of force can be generated if liquid nitrogen is rapidly vaporized. In an incident in 2006 at Texas A&M University, the pressure-relief devices of a tank of liquid nitrogen were sealed with brass plugs. As a result, the tank failed catastrophically, and exploded.

TANKS The tanks must be designed to safety standards appropriate for a pressure vessel, such as ISO 11439. The storage tank may be made of: Steel, Aluminium, Carbon fiber, Kevlar, Other materials or combinations of the above.

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The fiber materials are considerably lighter than metals but generally more expensive. Metal tanks can withstand a large number of pressure cycles, but must be checked for corrosion periodically.

EMISSION OUTPUT Like other non-combustion energy storage technologies, a liquid nitrogen vehicle displaces the emission source from the vehicle's tail pipe to the central electrical generating plant. Where emissions-free sources are available, net production of pollutants can be reduced.Emission control measures at a central generating plant may be more effective and less costly than treating the emissions of widely dispersed vehicles. GAS FLOW DIAGRAM FOR NITROGEN POWERED CAR

2.2 WORKING The more cars are driven, the cleaner the air becomes. Sound crazy? It's possible by using a C-H ("cryogenic heat") engine to power cars. A C-H engine is a radically new energy concept being investigated by Drs. Carlos A. Ordonez, Mitty C. Plummer, and Richard F. Reidy at the University of
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North Texas with support from the Texas Advanced Technology Program. The most intriguing aspect of the concept is that the fuel used by a C-H engine to power a vehicle can be either liquefied air or liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen is produced by taking nitrogen gas from the atmosphere and cooling and compressing it. Because air consists of 78% nitrogen gas, liquid nitrogen have similar properties. In order to run a C-H engine using liquid nitrogen, liquid nitrogen is heated and expanded in much the same way that water is heated and expanded when used to run a steam engine. However, an important difference is that pollution-emitting combustion is not necessary for the heating process. Instead, heat already existing in the atmosphere is used. As a result, the exhaust consists solely of pure, clean, breathable air. As an environmental benefit, liquid nitrogen production systems remove undesirable airborne pollutants from the air. As a result, the more those cars powered by C-H engines are driven, the cleaner the air becomes.

Schematic of Liquid Nitrogen Car LN2000

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Liquid Nitrogen Propulsion Cycle Diagram

In the LN2000 liquid nitrogen powered concept car, being developed at the University of Washington, the liquid fuel is let out of a pressurized tank, preheated by an economizer which takes heat from the exhaust before it quickly vaporizes, expanding rapidly in an endothermic reaction. This expanding gas is converted into energy that moves the wheels of the converted mail truck by a 15hp radial air moter

The main problem that developers of N2 powered cars had to overcome was that when the nitrogen was expanding, it absorbed so much heat, that the pipes that carried the gas would freeze up. This problem has been solved in the LN2000 by preheating the liquid nitrogen in such a way that ice is less likely to form and insulate the pipes and nitrogen from the ambient heat.

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2.3 POWER CYCLE

There are many thermodynamic cycles available for utilizing the thermal potential of liquid nitrogen. These range from the Brayton cycle, to using two- and even three-fluid topping cycles, to employing a hydrocarbon-fueled boiler for superheating beyond atmospheric temperatures. The easiest to implement, however, and the one chosen for this study, is shown below. This system uses an open Rankine cycle. The temperature entropy diagram for the open rankine cycle is described below.

Figure 2: Temperature - entropy diagram for the open Rankine cycle.

State 1 is the cryogenic liquid in storage at 0.1 MPa and 77 K. The liquid is pumped up to system pressure of 4 MPa (supercritical) at state 2 and then enters the economizer. State 3 indicates N2 properties after it is being preheated by the exhaust gas. Further heat
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exchange with ambient air brings the N2 to 300 K at state 4, ready for expansion. Isothermal expansion to 0.11 MPa at state 5 would result in the N2 exhaust having enough enthalpy to heat the LN2 to above its critical temperature in the economizer, whereas adiabatic expansion to state 6 would not leave sufficient enthalpy to justify its use. The specific work output would be 320 and 200 kJ/kg-LN2 for these isothermal and adiabatic cycles, respectively, without considering pump work. While these power cycles do not make best use of the thermodynamic potential of the LN2, they do provide specific energies competitive with those of lead-acid batteries.

2.4 Performance of the open Rankine cycle

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The thermodynamic and economic performances of the adiabatic and isothermal modes of the open Rankine cycle are shown in Table 1. These figures are based on the specifications of a modified Honda CRX for which performance data were available. The cost of 2.6 per kg-LN2 was derived assuming only the energy cost of production.
Process Pump Work: Net Work Out: Heat Input: Energy Density: LN2 Flow Rate: Operating Cost: Adiabatic 6 kJ/kg-LN2 194 kJ/kg-LN2 419 kJ/kg-LN2 54 W-h/kg-LN2 Isothermal 6 kJ/kg-LN2 314 kJ/kg-LN2 750 kJ/kg-LN2 87 W-h/kg-LN2

1.5 kg/km

0.93 kg/km

3.9 /km

2.4 /km

Based on 7.8 kW for highway cruise at 97 km/h. Based on 2.6 per kg-LN2 production cost.

Table1: Performance of the open Rankine cycle.

2.5 LIQUID NITROGEN MANUFACTURE

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The cost of the LN2 "fuel" is expected to be reasonable. The primary expense for producing LN2 is the energy cost for compression of air. Cryogenic separation of nitrogen from other condensables in air typically requires only a very small fraction of the total energy, so the ideal work to manufacture LN2 from air is very nearly that for using nitrogen as a feedstock. This work is exactly the reversible work obtainable from an ideal cryoengine, 769 kJ/kg. The actual work required in a modern LN2 plant is 2.0-2.5 times the minimum, or 1540-1920 kJ/kg. Assuming an industrial electric rate for interruptible power of 5/kW-h, the energy cost would amount to 2.6/kg-LN2, in accord with delivery prices of LN2 in large quantities. Marketing the other commercially important components of air will help offset the LN2 production costs. Since the equipment needed for air liquefaction can be powered solely by electricity, it is conceivable to decentralize the "fuel" manufacturing process and to place small scale production facilities at the LN2 dispensing sites. A cost-benefit analysis is needed to determine the smallest air liquefaction machinery that can be used to produce LN2 in an economical manner.

CHAPTER 3
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3.1 ADVANTAGES

Studies indicate that liquid nitrogen automobiles will have significant performance and environmental advantages over electric vehicles. A liquid nitrogen car with a 60-gallon tank will have a potential range of up to 200 miles, or more than twice that of a typical electric car. Furthermore, a liquid nitrogen car will be much lighter and refilling its tank will take only 10-15 minutes, rather than the several hours required by most electric car concepts. Motorists will fuel up at filling stations very similar to today's gasoline stations. When liquid nitrogen is manufactured in large quantities, the operating cost per mile of a liquid nitrogen car will not only be less than that of an electric car but will actually be competitive with that of a gasoline car.

As compared to fossil fuels:

The process to manufacture liquid nitrogen in large quantities can be environmentally very friendly, even if fossil fuels are used to generate the electric power required. The exhaust gases produced by burning fossil fuels in a power plant contain not only carbon dioxide and gaseous pollutants, but also all the nitrogen from the air used in the combustion. By feeding these exhaust gases to the nitrogen liquefaction plant, the carbon dioxide and other undesirable products of combustion can be condensed and separated in the process of chilling the nitrogen, and thus no pollutants need be released to the atmosphere by the power plant. The sequestered carbon dioxide and pollutants could be injected into depleted gas and oil wells, deep mine shafts, deep ocean subduction zones, and other repositories from which they will not diffuse back into the atmosphere, or they could be chemically processed into useful or inert substances. Consequently, the implementation of a large fleet of liquid nitrogen vehicles could have much greater

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environmental benefits than just reducing urban air pollution as desired by current zeroemission vehicle mandates.
Comparing Energy Densities:

Figure 3: Specific energy for various energy storage media.

The above figure shows how a liquid nitrogen based propulsion cycle fares against the various electrochemical storage media mentioned earlier. Specific energy is a useful figure of merit because it correlates closely with range. Even the next generation, nickelmetal hydride battery, only matches the performance of the isothermal open Rankine cycle. And the open Rankine is not the highest performing cycle available. By adding a, methane topping cycle, upwards of 160 W-hr/kg can be achieved.

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3.2 DISADVANTAGES

The principal disadvantage is the inefficient use of primary energy. Energy is used to liquify nitrogen, which in turn provides the energy to run the motor. Any conversion of energy between forms results in loss. For liquid nitrogen cars, energy is lost when electrical energy is converted to liquid nitrogen.

Liquid nitrogen is not yet available in public refueling stations.

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REFERENCE

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2.

3.
4.

5.

J. Franz, C. A. Ordonez, A. Carlos, Cryogenic Heat Engines Made Using Electro caloric Capacitors, American Physical Society, Texas Section Fall Meeting, October 46, 2001 Fort Worth, Texas Meeting ID: TSF01, abstract #EC.009, 10/2001. C. Knowlen, A.T. Mattick, A.P. Bruckner and A. Hertzberg, "High Efficiency Conversion Systems for Liquid Nitrogen Automobiles", Society of Automotive Engineers Inc, 1988. Werley, Barry L. (Edtr.) (1991). "Fire Hazards in Oxygen Systems". ASTM Technical Professional training. Philadelphia: ASTM International Subcommittee G-4.05. Brent S. Mattox. "Investigative Report on Chemistry 301A Cylinder Explosion" (reprint). Texas A&M University. http://ucih.ucdavis.edu/docs/chemistry_301a.pdf. Gas cylinders -- High pressure cylinders for the on-board storage of natural gas as a fuel for automotive vehicles

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