Published on Jun 05, 2023
Liquid Nitrogen is the cheapest, widely produced and most common cryogenic liquid. It is mass produced in air liquefaction plants. The liquefaction process is very simple in it normal, atmospheric air is passed through a dust precipitator and pre-cooled using conventional refrigeration techniques. It is then compressed inside large turbo pumps to about 100 atmospheres. Once the air has reached 100 atmospheres and has been cooled to room temperature it is allowed to expand rapidly through a nozzle into an insulted chamber. By running several cycles the temperate of the chamber reaches low enough temperatures the air entering it starts to liquefy. Liquid nitrogen is removed form the chamber by fractional distillation and is stored inside well-insulated Dewar flasks.
How does the Nitrogen Powered car work?
Heat from the atmosphere vaporizes liquid nitrogen under pressure and produces compressed nitrogen gas. This compressed gas runs a pneumatic (compressed gas drive) motor with nitrogen gas as the exhaust.
Main Components of the Engine:
• A pressurized tank to store liquid nitrogen
• A heat exchager that heats (using atmospheric heat) liquid nitrogen to form nitrogen gas, then heats gas under pressure to near atmospheric temperature.
• A pneumatic motor (along with a Volkswagen transmission) that runs the car.
Principle of Operation :
The principle of running the LN2000Car is like that of steam engine, except there is no combustion involved. Instead liquid nitrogen at -320 o F (-196 o C) is pressurized and then vaporized in a heat exchanger by ambient temperature of the surroundings 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 major constituent of our atmosphere.
