CRYOCAR

Suhas Upadhyaya
1st Sem, Mtech
Thermal Engineering
Reg No:10TH13F
 What is a Cryocar?
It is a liquid nitrogen powered vehicle.


Propulsion systems are cryogenic heat

engines in which a cryogenic substance is
used as a heat sink.

Cryogenic Heat Engine
It is a engine which uses very cold substances
to produce useful energy.

There is always some heat input to the working
fluid during the expansion process.

 Liquid Nitrogen(LN2)
Liquid Nitrogen is the cheapest, widely
produced and most common cryogen.


It is mass produced in air liquefaction plants



The liquefaction process is very simple.


Normal, atmospheric air is passed through
dust precipitator and pre-cooled.

 Inter cooler

Atmospheric Dust Turbo

Precipitator pumps
Air passes

Expansion

Fractional
Insulated Nozzle
LN2

chamber
Distillation

Dewar Flask
It is th e n co m p re sse d in sid e la rg e tu rb o p u m p s to a b o u t
100 atmospheres.
•Once the air has been cooled to room temperature it is
allowed to expand rapidly through a nozzle into an
insulated chamber.
•
•

•By running several cycles the temperature of the chamber

becomes low enough. The air entering it starts to liquefy.
•
Liquid nitrogen is removed from the chamber by fractional
distillation and is stored inside well-insulated Dewar
flasks .
Main Components of the
Engine:
A pressurized tank to store liquid nitrogen.
Pressurant bottles of N2 gas substitute for a pump.
The gas pushes the liquid nitrogen out of the
Dewar that serves as a fuel tank.
A primary heat exchanger that heats (using
atmospheric heat) LN2 to form N2 gas, then heats
gas under pressure to near atmospheric
temperature.
An Expander to provide work to the drive shaft of
the vehicle.
An economizer or a secondary heat exchanger,
which preheats the liquid N2 coming out from the
pressurized tank taking heat from the exhaust.
Principle of Operation:
LN2 at –320 o F (-1 9 6 oC) is pressurized and then
vaporized in a heat exchanger by 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.
Liquid N2 passing through the primary heat
exchanger quickly reaches its boiling point.
The N2 expands to a gas with a pressure of 1 5 0
psi.

•T h e p re ssu rise d N 2 gas drives the motor.
•
•

•The only exhaust is nitrogen, which is major

constituent of our atmosphere.
•
•Energy+N2(l)-->N2(g)
•
Hence, there is no pollution produced by running this
car.
Advantages over
electric cars:


A liquid nitrogen car is much lighter and

refilling its tank takes only about 1 0 -1 5
minutes.

The exhaust produced by the car is
environmental friendly.

A cryogenic car could have three times the
range of an electric car of the same weight
and no battery disposal concerns .

Drawbacks:
The N2 passing through the tubes of the heat
exchanger is so cold that the moisture in the
surrounding air would condense on the outside of
the tubes, obstructing the air flow.

Then there's the safety issue. Should a nitrogen car
be kept in a poorly ventilated space and, if the
Nitrogen leaks off, it could prove fatal.

Turning N2 gas into a liquid requires a lot of energy.
So while cryogenic cars have zero emissions, they
rely on energy produced at emission generating
power plants.
Probable Solutions:
A tube within a tube design.
N2 passes back and forth inside a set of three
nested tubes.
By the time it reaches the outermost tubes, the
N2 is warm enough that the exterior wall of
the tube remains above the freezing point of
water.
Route the exhaust from the fossil fuel power
plants through cryogenic plants, so that the
pollutants and the greenhouse gases could be
condensed for later disposal
Efficiency:

The LN2 car can travel 1 5 miles on a full (4 8
gallon) tank of liquid nitrogen going 2 0 MPH.

Its maximum speed is over 3 5 MPH.
 Why not
commercialized?
 Even though the technology is 1 0 to 1 2 years
old, still it has not come to the market for two
reasons.


Safety issues have not been sorted out as yet.


Lack of funds for research.

Conclusion:
In a real sense, the more such vehicles are
used, the cleaner the air will become.

In addition to the environmental impact of
these vehicles, refueling using current
technology can take only a few minutes,
which is very similar to current gas refueling
times.

References:
Research paper on “Liquid Nitrogen as a
Non-Polluting Vehicle Fuel” by Mitty c.
Plummer, Carlos A. Ordonez and Richard F.
Reidy, University of North Texas.
The University of Washington’s Liquid Nitrogen
Propelled Automobile
Popular Science, 1 9 9 8 .

THANK YOU