International Journal of Structural Mechanics and Finite Elements

Vol. 2: Issue 2
www.journalspub.com

Modification of Compressed Air Technology in Vehicles: A

Review
C. Chinglenthoiba*, V. Balaji, B. Abbas, A. Madhan Kumar
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mahendra Engineering College, Affiliated to Anna University,
Namakkal, Chennai, India

ABSTRACT
Today’s world is concerned of saving the environment, pollution is the major point of
harmful environment and it is the global issue. Major amount of air pollution is caused by the
vehicles, factories, etc. Hence, today’s engineers focus on building an eco-friendly engine
which can reduce the pollution caused by vehicles.

Keywords: compressed air technology, effective renewable alternative energy, zero pollution
vehicle

*Corresponding Author
E-mail: ch.chinglenthoiba@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION HISTORY STARTS WITH TODAY’S

Compressed air has been used since the
19th century to power mine locomotives
and trams in cities such as Paris (via a
central, city-level, compressed air energy
distribution system), and was previously
the basis of naval torpedo propulsion.
During the construction of the
Gotthardbahn from 1872 to 1882,
pneumatic locomotives were used in the
construction of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel
and other tunnels of the Gotthardbahn. [1–4]
In 1903, the Liquid Air Company located
in London England manufactured a
number of compressed-air and liquefied-
air cars.
The major problem with these cars and all
compressed-air cars is the lack of torque
produced by the “engines” and the cost of
compressing the air. Recently several
companies have started to develop
compressed air cars, although none have
been released to the public, or have been
tested by third parties.[5]
AIR CAR INVENTORS
Angelo Di Petro’s Rotary Positive
Displacement Air Engine
Everything I have heard about this air
engine is positive. Many people have
written asking me to report on it, but the
best I can do till I ride in his air car is to
show you a picture and based on what is
said about the engine, I think it sounds like
a good idea. It seems like a good approach
to simplifying the piston engine while
lowering friction and wear, quoting from
the website.
"The space between stator and rotor is
divided in 6 expansion chambers by
pivoting dividers. These dividers follow
the motion of the shaft driver as it rolls
around the stator wall. The motor shown in
Figure 1 is effectively a 6 cylinder
expansion motor. Variation of
performance parameters of the motor is
easily achieved by varying the time during
which the air is allowed to enter the
chamber: A longer air inlet period allows

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Modification of Compressed Air Technology in Vehicles
more air to flow into the chamber and
therefore results in more torque.[6,7]
Fig. 1. Air engine.
A shorter inlet period will limit the air
supply and allows the air in the chamber to
perform expansion work at a much higher
efficiency.
In this way compressed air (energy)
consumption can be exchanged for higher
torque and power output depending on the
requirements of the application. Motor
speed and torque are simply controlled by
throttling the amount or pressure of air into
the motor (Figure 2).
Fig. 2. First air vehicle.
The Di Pietro motor gives instant torque at
zero RPM and can be precisely controlled
to give soft start and acceleration control."
IJSMFE (2016) 35–41 © JournalsPub 2016. All Rights Reserved
Chinglenthoiba et al.
From what I've read, I think this sounds
like what other people have wished they
could invent. A lot of people are counting
on Mr. Di Pietro to get an air car on the
market.[8–10]
Armando Regusci Loves to Build Air
Cars
In my correspondence with Mr. Regusci of
Uruguay, I found him a sincere person and
his design very appealing.
Like my torquerack engine, his invention
does away with the crankshaft, replacing it
with sprockets and chains and
freewheeling clutches, to turn a shaft. He
has built bikes and small air cars of
various descriptions and is very devoted to
the cause. His website,
http://www.airenergycars.com, is
extensive. You can also see his video on
YouTube.com.
When I first contacted Mr. Regusci, he
was assisting a university in Texas with
their plans to build an air car.
I want all you air car enthusiasts to
become air car inventors, like angelo di
pietro, armando regusci, guy negre, terry
miller, and all the rest. join forces with
each other and let's get off the internet and
onto the highway. we know we have the
best alternative, now let's get out there and
prove it.[11,12]
A BRIEF HISTORY OF AIR CARS
For half a century the air-powered
locomotive was a serious contender for the
top spot in transportation because of its
obvious advantages: simplicity, safety,
economy, and cleanliness. Air engines
were commercially available and used
routinely, first as metropolitan street
transit and later for haulage in mines. The
term “air engine” disappeared from
engineering textbooks after the 1930s and
the Second World War. Gas engines had
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Vol. 2: Issue 2
www.journalspub.com

been perfected, the oil industry was

established, and gas was cheap.

Serious interest in air cars was rekindled

by the energy glitches of the 1970s.
Dozens of inventors have patented designs
for hybrid, closed cycle, and self-fueling
air cars, as well as conversions for existing
engines and designs for air cars meant to
stop at air stations for refueling.[13]

The Pneumatic Railway, 1880s to Today
Like modern electric subway trains, the
power supply was provided continuously
by a pipeline laid along the track. This
concept was not practical at the time it was
invented (1820s) because the materials
were not available to make it work
reliably. A modern version appeared in
Brazil in the 1980s, invented by Oskar H.
W. Coester, and developed by Aeromovel
Global Corp.
The reheater was a hot water tank through
which the compressed air bubbled in direct
contact with the water, picking up hot
water vapor which improved the engine's
range-between-fill-ups.
The Hardie Compressed Air
Locomotive, 1892–1900
Robert Hardie's air engine was a going
concern in street transit in New York City.
Air car advocate General Herman Haupt, a
civil engineer, wrote extensively about the
advantages of air cars, using the Hardie
engine as his source material and
providing much of the impetus for the
New York experiment to gain support and
succeed. The engine was a one-stage
expansion engine using a more advanced
type of reheating than the Mekarski
engine. One of its new features was
regenerative braking.

The Mekarski Compressed Air

Locomotive, 1886–1900
The Mekarski air engine was used for
street transit. It was a single-stage engine
(air expanded in one piston then
exhausted) and represented an advance in
air engine technology that made air cars
feasible: the air was reheated after leaving
the tank and before entering the engine.[14]

By using the engine as a compressor

during deceleration, air and heat were
added to the tanks, increasing the range

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Modification of Compressed Air Technology in Vehicles Chinglenthoiba et al.

between fill-ups. A 1500 horsepower

steam-powered air compressor station was
built in New York City to supply the
Hardie compressed air locomotives and the
Hoadley-Knight pneumatic locomotives.

The Hoadley-Knight Compressed Air

Locomotive, 1896–1900
The Hoadley-Knight system was the first
air powered transit locomotive that
incorporated a two-stage engine. It was
beginning to be recognized that the longer
you keep the air in the engine, the more
time it has to absorb the heat that increases
its range-between-fill-ups.
The H. K. Porter Company in Pittsburgh
sold hundreds of these locomotives to
coal-mining companies in the eastern U.S.
With the hopeful days of air powered
street transit over, the compressed air
locomotive became a standard fixture in
coal mines around the world because it
created no heat or spark and was therefore
invaluable in gassy mines where
explosions were always a danger with
electric or gas engines.

The European Three-Stage Air

Locomotive, 1912–1930
Hodges' patents were improved upon by
European engineers who increased the
number of expansion stages to three and
used interheaters before all three stages.
The coal mines of France and Germany
and other countries such as Belgium were
swarming with these locomotives, which
increased their range-between-fill-ups 60%
Hoadley and Knight were also supporters
by the addition of ambient heat. [16,17]
of Nikola Tesla's disc turbine, for which
they formed a propulsion company that
didn't get off the ground.[15]

The H. K. Porter Compound Air

Locomotives, 1896–1930
Inventor Charles B. Hodges became the
first and only air car inventor in history to
see his invention become a lasting
commercial success. His engine was two-
stage and employed an interheater between
the two piston stages to warm the partially
expanded compressed air with the
surrounding atmosphere. A substantial
gain in range-between-fill-ups was thus
proven attainable with no cost for the extra
fuel, which was provided by the sun.

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 International Journal of Structural Mechanics and Finite Elements
It might have become obvious to the
powers-that-be that these upstarts were a
threat to the petroleum takeover that was
well under way in the transportation
industry; after world war two the term "air
engine" was never used in compressed air
textbooks and air powered locomotives, if
used at all, were usually equipped with
standard, inefficient air motors.
The German Diesel-Pneumatic Hybrid
Locomotive, 1930
Just before technical journals stopped
reporting on compressed air locomotives,
they carried stories on a 1200 horsepower
full-size above-ground locomotive that had
been developed in Germany. An on-board
compressor was run by a diesel engine,
and the air engine drove the locomotive’s
wheels.
Waste heat from the diesel engine was
transferred to the air engine where it
became fuel again. By conserving heat in
this way, the train's range-between-fill-ups
was increased 26%. A modern train
engineer tells me that all train engines
these days are hybrids: diesel-electric. And
we are supposed to consider the Toyota
Prius a miracle of modern invention?
Terry Miller, the Father of the Modern
Air Car Movement
In 1979, Terry Miller set out to design a
spring-powered car and determined that
compressed air, being a spring that doesn't
break or wear out, was the perfect energy-
storing medium. From there he developed
his Air Car One, which he built for $1500
and patented. He showed his air car from
coast to coast and then went on to other
things. In 1993 he picked up his air car
IJSMFE (2016) 35–41 © JournalsPub 2016. All Rights Reserved
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project again with the help of Toby
Butterfield of Joplin, Missouri. They
developed the Spirit of Joplin air car with
parts mostly donated by manufacturers.
Terry's air engines demonstrated the
feasibility of building air engines with off-
the-shelf parts on a small budget. His
engines used up to four consecutive stages
to expand the same air over and over.
They ran at a low speed so there was
plenty of time for ambient heat to enter the
system and the possibility of low-tech
developers to build engines cheaply at
home. Terry was instrumental in educating
the founder of Pneumatic Options on air
car fundamentals. Terry's greatest
contribution--and what makes him an air
car advocate, not just another inventor--
was that he published and made easily
available the complete details on how to
build an engine like his. No other inventor
has done this. Shortly before his death in
1997, Terry Miller gave all rights to his
invention to his daughter and to Toby
Butterfield. Mr. Butterfield died in 2002.
Guy Negre and MDI
Currently a French inventor named Guy
Negre is building an organization to
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Modification of Compressed Air Technology in Vehicles
market his air car designs in several
countries. A web search for air cars will
turn up hundreds of references to his
company, Moteur Developpment
International (MDI). His website is at
www.mdi.lu.
Mr. Negre holds patents on his unique air
engine in several countries. Plans are
underway to build air car factories in
Mexico, South Africa, Spain and other
countries. We wish him success and
encourage you to visit his website (or one
of his licensees in Spain, Portugal, and
Great Britain, theaircar.com) and support
his good work.[18–21]
C. J. Marquand's Air Car Engine
Dr. Marquand has taken the highly
commendable step of incorporating heat
pipes into his air engine design for the
recovery of compression heat. He also
plans to use regenerative braking.
It is not clear whether his engine has been
tested in a car yet. Professor Marquand is a
scientist with a number of published
research articles to his credit. For further
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Chinglenthoiba et al.
information contact: C. J. Marquand or H.
R. Ditmore, Dept. of Technology &
Design, Univ. of Westminster, 115 New
Cavendish St., London W1M 8JS, Tel.
0170 911 5000.
Tsu-Chin Tsao's Hybrid Air Engine for
Cars
Tsu-Chin Tsao is a distinguished professor
of mechanical and aerospace engineering
at UCLA. He has invented a camless
gasoline engine that does not idle; it uses
compressed air to start the car, and when
the air is gone the engine runs on
gasoline.[22,23]
During deceleration, braking energy
operates a compressor to fill the air tank
for the next start. This brings to mind
Buckminster Fuller's reminder in his
magnum opus Critical Path, wherein he
tells us how many horses (as in
horsepower) could be jumping up and
down going nowhere for all the gasoline
being pointlessly burned by cars sitting at
red lights at any given time. We have
nothing but admiration and respect for
Professor Tsao's serious step in a perfectly
good direction, and apparently Ford Motor
Company is in agreement: they are
working with Tsao's team to look into the
viability of putting a pneumatic hybrid on
the road to compete with the Toyota Prius
and other electric hybrids. The pneumatic
hybrid is expected to save 64% in city
driving and 12% on the highway. No more
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 International Journal of Structural Mechanics and Finite Elements
working on the single cylinder four strokes
engine was done afterwards.
REFERENCES
[1] Technology Review: The Air Car
Preps for Market.
[2] “Gas cylinders – High pressure
cylinders for the on-board storage of
natural gas as a fuel for automotive
vehicles”. Iso.org. 2006-07-18.
Retrieved 2010-10-13.
[3] “The Air Car Preps for Market”.
Technology Review. Retrieved 2010-
10-13.
[4] http://www.speedace.info/electric_ca
rs.htm.
[5] Adolphe B. Luftlokomotive, In:
Photographische Ansichten der
Gotthardbahn. Dornach im Elsass,
ca. 1875.
[6] “History and Directory of Electric
Cars from 1834 to 1987”. Didik.com.
Retrieved 2009-09-19.
[7] “What About Compressed Air
Cars?”. Tree Hugger. Retrieved
2010-10-13.
[8] Engineair. Retrieved 2010-10-13.
[9] MDI refilling stations.
[10] Mazza P., Hammerschlag R. Wind-
to-Wheel Energy Assessment.
Institute for Lifecycle Environmental
Assessment. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
[11] “MDI Enterprises S.A”. Mdi.lu.
Retrieved 2010-10-13.
IJSMFE (2016) 35–41 © JournalsPub 2016. All Rights Reserved
Vol. 2: Issue 2
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[12] “National Science Foundation (NSF)
News – From Farm Waste to Fuel
Tanks – US National Science
Foundation (NSF)”. nsf.gov.
Retrieved 2010-10-13.
[13] http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/j
a0771639.
[14] http://www.popularmechanics.com/a
utomotive/new_cars/4217016.html.
[15] “Toyota three-wheeler does 80.3
mph on compressed air”.
Physorg.com. Retrieved 2012-08-11.
[16] Green Speed Air Powered
Motorcycle.
[17] Compressed air moped conversion.
[18] “Compressed air moped being built
by Jem Stansfield”. Ecogeek.org.
Retrieved 2010-10-13.
[19] Compressed-Air Propulsion.
[20] Fazeli A., et al. A novel compression
strategy for air hybrid engines, Appl
Energy. 2011; 88: 2955–66p.
[21] Bossel U. Thermodynamic analysis
of compressed air vehicle propulsion,
Eur Fuel Cell Forum. 2009.
[22] Gary Wood J., et al. Design of a low
pressure air engine for third world
use, 17th Annual Intersociety Energy
Conversion. Los Angeles, California,
August, 1982.
[23] Wei H.E., et al. Performance study
on three-stage power system of
compressed air vehicle based on
single-screw expander, Sci China
Technol Sci. 2010; 2299–303p.
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