Air Powered Engine

BY
TERRIN J
MARIO
PEREIRA

What is an Air Powered Engine ?

An engine powered by Compressed air is

known as air powered engine.

For Example Compressed air cars are powered
by motors driven by compressed air, which is
stored in a tank at high pressure such as 30
Mpa (4500 psi or 310 bar). Rather than driving
the engine pistons with an ignited fuel-air
mixture, compressed air cars use the
expansion of compressed air, in a similar
manner to the expansion of steam in a steam
engine.

History of Air Engine

Compressed air has been used since the 19th

century to power mines, locomotives and

trains in cities was previously the basis of
naval torpedo propulsion.
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.

Classification Of Air Engine

An Air Engine is classified according to

Position and Number of Cylinders as :

Single Cylinder Engine
Opposed Cylinder Engine

Single Cylinder Engine

Engine has one cylinder and the piston

connected to the crankshaft

Opposed Cylinder Engine

Two banks of cylinders opposite each other on

a single crankshaft (a V engine with a 180V).

These are common on small aircraft and some
automobiles with an even number of cylinders
from two to eight or more. These engines are
often called flat engines.

How to Convert a Conventional Engine to Air

Powered Engine
To convert a conventional IC(four stroke petrol)

engine into an Air Powered one, few components are

to be replaced.
Replace the spark plug with a pulsed pressure
control valve which can create required pressure.
Replace fuel tank with air vessel, as engine requires
pressurized air as input.
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.

Various Important Parts of the

Engine
The parts which are newly introduced to be

used in air engine are:

PLC circuit.
Pulsed Pressure Control Valve.
Air vessel(Compressed Air Tank made up of
carbon fiber)
Modified cam.

Working Details Of Air Engine with comparing

normal 4 stroke IC engine.
Operation:
Initial torque is supplied from the DC exciter

motor, and then the engine operation starts.

Stage 1: When the piston is in the TDC,
compressed air is injected through the pulsed
air firing valve, which pushes the piston to
BDC.

Stage 2: Due to the motion of the engine and

its inertia, the piston moves back to TDC,

pushing the air out of the valves.
The plunger of the pulsed firing valve is
controlled by a timing circuit which is
specifically a PLC programmed circuit. It
supplies the electronic signals by which the
plunger moves so that it opens and closes the
pulsed firing valve.

On comparing it with the working of normal SI

4 stroke engine:
Stage 1 of the air engine comprises of the
combined operation of Suction stage and
Power stage of the normal 4 stroke SI
engine.
Stage 2 of the air engine comprises of the
combined operation of the Compression
stage and Exhaust stage of the normal 4
stroke SI engine

Benefits of Using Air Engine

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.

Economic benefits:

No use of expensive fossil fuels as the free air is

compressed and taken to use. For this reason
people can easily shift to the new technology.
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. cheaper
in cost and maintenance and it doesnt cause any
kind of harm to the environment. Thus it is surely
a futuristic mode of transport.

Limitations of Air engine

When air expands in the engine it cools

dramatically and must be heated to ambient

temperature.
This also leads to the necessity of completely
dehydrating the compressed air. pressure using
a heat exchanger.
Refueling the compressed air container using a
home or low-end conventional air compressor
may take as long as 4 hours, though specialized
equipment at service stations may fill the tanks
in only 3 minutes

Limitations of Air engine

The overall efficiency of a vehicle using

compressed air energy storage, using the

above refueling figures, is around 5-7%.For
comparison, well to wheel efficiency of a
conventional internal-combustion drivetrain is
about 14%,
Early tests have demonstrated the limited
storage capacity of the tanks; the only
published test of a vehicle running on
compressed air alone was limited to a range
of 7.22 km.

Thank
YOU