In April scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) put out a call seeking designs for a tactical flying car under its Transformer (TX) program. One of the first to respond is AVX Aircraft Company – its AVX Aircraft that can be manually driven on the ground like an SUV and also boasts Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) capability.

The stated objective of the TX program is to “demonstrate a four person flyable/roadable vehicle that will provide the warfighter with terrain-independent mobility. This presents unprecedented capability to avoid traditional and asymmetrical threats while avoiding road obstructions.” The TX will be designed to enhance future operations with use in strike and raid, intervention, interdiction, insurgency/counterinsurgency, reconnaissance, medical evacuation and logistical supply.

The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) from DARPA called for a design that:

  • could be manually driven on the ground like an SUV
  • rapidly configures between ground and flight configuration
  • has Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) capability
  • has a cruise speed equivalent to a light aircraft
  • has automated takeoff/landing flight control.

AVX met these performance requirements with its AVX TX design that has:

  • 1,040 lb payload
  • 250 nautical mile range on one tank of fuel
  • 10,000 ft mean sea level altitude at max gross weight
  • 80mph on road speed, 30mph rough terrain speed
  • 140mph flying speed
  • converts from road to flight mode in 60 seconds

AVX says its TX will also have intuitive controls that will provide non-pilot operator control and navigation systems that are intuitive enough to facilitate the transition from road to flight operations. The vehicle’s dual ducted fans will provide propulsion both on the ground and in the air.

Additionally the AVX (TX) can be quickly converted to medivac with a vehicle operator, medical attendant and littered patient. It can also be converted to a resupply vehicle and can move 12,50 lbs as an unmanned vehicle using a sling or 1,000 lbs as a manned vehicle with the same 250 nm range.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Ultra-Simple Method for Creating

Nanoscale Gold Coatings Developed

Researchers at Rensselaer have developed a new, ultra-simple method for making layers of gold that measure only billionths of a meter thick. As seen in the research image, drops of gold-infused toluene applied to a surface evaporate within a few minutes and leave behind a uniform layer of nanoscale gold. The process requires no sophisticated equipment, works on nearly any surface, takes only 10 minutes, and could have important implications for nanoelectronics and semiconductor manufacturing. (Credit: Image courtesy of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

Gold plated porche.Munich show.

Science (June 21, 2010) — Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new, ultra-simple method for making layers of gold that measure only billionths of a meter thick. The process, which requires no sophisticated equipment and works on nearly any surface including silicon wafers, could have important implications for nanoelectronics and semiconductor manufacturing.

Sang-Kee Eah, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy at Rensselaer, and graduate student Matthew N. Martin infused liquid toluene — a common industrial solvent — with gold nanoparticles. The nanoparticles form a flat, closely packed layer of gold on the surface of the liquid where it meets air. By putting a droplet of this gold-infused liquid on a surface, and waiting for the toluene to evaporate, the researchers were able to successfully coat many different surfaces — including a 3-inch silicon wafer — with a monolayer of gold nanoparticles.

“There has been tremendous progress in recent years in the chemical syntheses of colloidal nanoparticles. However, fabricating a monolayer film of nanoparticles that is spatially uniform at all length scales — from nanometers to millimeters — still proves to be quite a challenge,” Eah said. “We hope our new ultra-simple method for creating monolayers will inspire the imagination of other scientists and engineers for ever-widening applications of gold nanoparticles.”

Results of the study, titled “Charged gold nanoparticles in non-polar solvents: 10-min synthesis and 2-D self-assembly,” were published recently in the journal Langmuir.

Whereas other synthesis methods take several hours, this new method chemically synthesizes gold nanoparticles in only 10 minutes without the need for any post-synthesis cleaning, Eah said. In addition, gold nanoparticles created this way have the special property of being charged on non-polar solvents for 2-D self-assembly.

Previously, the 2-D self-assembly of gold nanoparticles in a toluene droplet was reported with excess ligands, which slows down and complicates the self-assembly process. This required the non-volatile excess ligands to be removed in a vacuum. In contrast, Eah’s new method ensures that gold nanoparticles float to the surface of the toluene drop in less than one second, without the need for a vacuum. It then takes only a few minutes for the toluene droplet to evaporate and leave behind the gold monoloayer.

“The extension of this droplet 2-D self-assembly method to other kinds of nanoparticles, such as magnetic and semiconducting particles, is challenging but holds much potential,” Eah said. “Monolayer films of magnetic nanoparticles, for instance, are important for magnetic data storage applications. Our new method may be able to help inform new and exciting applications.”

Co-authors on the paper are former Rensselaer undergraduate researchers James I. Basham ‘07, who is now a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University, and Paul Chando ‘09, who will begin graduate study in the fall at the City College of New York.

The research project was supported by Rensselaer, the Rensselaer Summer Undergraduate Research Program, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates, and the NSF’s East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Watch a video demonstration of this new fabrication process at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqkwM9o1s-w

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

More cars vulnerable to computer hackers


SAN DIEGO (UPI) — Increasingly sophisticated cars need to be protected from hackers who could tamper with computerized systems, U.S. scientists said.

As more cars become connected to the Internet through wireless systems, hackers could remotely sabotage the vehicles, The New York Times reported Friday.

In tests, computer security experts at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, said they were able to remotely control braking, stop the engine and activate dozens of other functions, almost all of them while a car was in motion.

The researchers tested two versions of a late-model car in laboratory and field settings. The researchers did not publicly identify the manufacturer or model, but said they believed the cars were representative of the computer network systems found in many late-model cars today.

“You should expect that various entry points in the automotive environment are no more secure in the automotive environment than they are in your PC,” said Stefan Savage, a computer scientist in San Diego.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 7th June 2010

Cars of the Future:

Plastic Makes Perfect?

Automotive Engineers

Bend New Materials

into Futuristic Shapes

February 1, 2006 — New materials for car bodies may soon transform the auto industry. Auto engineers can mold these carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics into virtually any shape. The materials are both strong and light — increasing fuel efficiency and safety at the same time.

TROY, Mich.– Cars built entirely out of plastic could be the wave of the future, making metal a thing of the past when it comes to cars.

New, innovative cars made almost entirely of plastic are paving the way for what you may be driving in the future. Guan Chew,amechanical engineer at Porsche Engineering Services in Troy, Mich., says, “With plastics you can design cars which are very bold, and that gives you an advantage to sell nicer cars.”

Plastics have gained a lot of ground over traditional metals used in cars, making it possible to build almost an entire vehicle completely of non-metal material. Paul Ritchie, CEO and engineer at Porsche Engineering Services, says: “The Carrera GT is what we would refer to as a proving ground for one of our new materials. It’s made essentially from reinforced plastic.”

Mechanical engineers use a lightweight, high-strength aerospace material called carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. It’s used in the doors, hoods, fenders, chasis and also in support frames for the engine and transmission.

“You can mold the plastics into very complicated shapes that maybe you can’t do in steel,” Chew says. Looks aren’t the only perks of plastic; plastics help cars lose weight to go farther on fuel.

New materials, like plastic, are usually tested on high-end vehicles first. Once the materials are proven to be more efficient and cost effective, they eventually filter down to affordable consumer vehicles.

BACKGROUND: Student designers at the College for Creative Studies are creating new plastic polymer materials as alternatives for automobile elements typically made of steel. The designs were part of a semester-long project sponsored by the American Plastics Council and the automotive division of the Society of Plastics Engineers.

ADVANTAGES: Among other advantages, plastics can significantly reduce the weight of a vehicle, improving fuel efficiency by reducing drag, and also cutting down on emissions. Because plastic can be more easily molded, components can be tailored for more comfortable human-ergonomic features, as well as more streamlined, aerodynamic shapes. Less material can be used than with steel components, and the durability of plastics results in a longer, more reliable vehicle lifetime.

ABOUT PLASTICS: Plastics are a type of polymer, a chemical substance made up of many very large, chain-shaped molecules. These molecules in turn form thousands of repeating units, much like the links in a chain. Different plastics are made by linking together different monomers into different length chains. Mixing polymers with various additives gives them many useful properties, which is why plastics are used so often in our everyday lives. Thermoplastics soften with heat and harden when cooled, such as polyvinylchloride (PVC) and Teflon. They are used in food packaging, milk and water bottles, electrical insulation, carpet fibers, and credit cards, among other applications. Thermosetting plastics harden with heat, such as epoxy and polyester. They can be found in mattresses, cushions, varnishes, glues, and coatings on electrical circuits.

MAKE YOUR OWN PLASTIC! Most plastics derive from oil (petroleum) but you can create the same kind of linked molecules with milk. (1) Pour 1/2 cup milk or heavy cream into a saucepan and heat to simmering over low to medium heat. (2) Stir in a few spoonfuls of vinegar or lemon juice; continue adding until mixture starts to gel. (3) Remove pan from heat and cool, then rinse the rubbery curds with water. The curds are plastic, formed by the chemical reaction between the casein in the milk and the acid in the vinegar or lemon juice.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 15th April 2010

Cars of Tomorrow

Automotive Engineers Team Up to

Improve Energy-Saving Technology

DAIMLER CHRYSLER HYBRID CAR

October 1, 2006 — Mechanical and electrical engineers at DaimlerChrysler, General Motors and BMW have jointly developed a hybrid-vehicle technology that shuts the internal combustion engine off when the vehicle stops. Meanwhile, engineers are working to replace the platinum in fuel cells with cheaper materials, which could lead to viable hydrogen cars.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The high cost of hybrids has kept many people from going green, and a new Edmonds.com study shows that with the cost of gas — combined with tax credits — it only takes about three years to break even.

Now a new breed of hybrid is going to lessen that time even more. It’s the brainchild of not one car company but DaimlerChrysler, General Motors and BMW! They are all working together to create the car of tomorrow.

As gas prices go up, the pressure is on to create cars that use less.

“The hybrid system that we’re developing, we can apply to any vehicle that we have,” Glenn Denomme, a chief engineer of Hybrid Powertrain Programs at DaimlerChrysler in Auburn Hills, Michigan, tells DBIS.

It allows for increased performance compared to a conventional SUV and improves fuel economy by up to 25 percent. Denomme says, “You can still haul your cargo, but you can still be environmentally sound too.”

Today’s hybrid works best in stop-and-go traffic — tomorrow’s hybrid will give you better fuel economy, not only in the city, but on the highway. When the new hybrid is stopped, the advanced system shuts the internal combustion engine off, conserving fuel. When the car starts to move, electric power is used to conserve fuel, adding power from the engine as needed.

Speeding up even more, power from both the engine and electric motors are routed to the wheels for greater acceleration.

The new technology doesn’t stop there! A fuel cell car is 100-percent electric.

“It takes hydrogen and oxygen, combines it to form water, and at the same time produces electricity,” says Doanh Tran, an advanced vehicle engineer with DaimlerChrysler’s Fuel Cell Vehicles & Technologies.

Hydrogen can be produced from just about anything that has a hydrogen molecule, and the car has no emission out of the tailpipe except water vapor.

Right now, platinum is used for the fuel cell’s parts and is expensive, but materials engineers are working to find new metals. And as for mileage, it gets 56 miles per gallon, so a little can go a long way.

The fuel cell car won’t be for sale until around 2012. The new DaimlerChrysler hybrid will hit the market in 2008. It will cost more than a conventional car, but the price hasn’t been set yet.

BACKGROUND: The German-American consortium of BMW, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors are developing a new type of two-mode hybrid system for a wide range of cars, trucks and SUVs, starting with the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe available in fall 2007. Current hybrids perform well in stop-and-go city driving, but don’t get as good mileage on the highway. The new hybrid version will get 25 percent better mileage in combined city and highway driving.

ADVANTAGES: Current hybrid engine systems have a single mode of operation, using a single gear set to split the engine’s power into two systems — routing it to drive the wheels or charge the battery — for both city and highway driving. Like other hybrids, the two-mode combines the power of a gasoline engine with that of electric motors, capturing energy from braking that would otherwise be lost and shutting off the engine at a stop. The battery alone can power the vehicle at low speeds. The new technology can operate much more efficiently at highway speeds with a greater boost from the electric motors, shutting down half the cylinders when not needed, thereby improving gas mileage. The components of the new two-mode system are also lighter and more compact, making them especially useful for reducing overall fuel consumption.

BATTERY BASICS: Whenever one type of matter converts into another, as in a chemical reaction, one form of energy also changes into another. A battery has two ends, called terminals, one with a negative charge, and one with a positive charge. Electrons congregate on the negative terminal. Connect a wire between the two terminals, and the electrons will flow from the negative to the positive end as quickly as they can. Connecting the battery starts the flow of electrons, jumpstarting a series of chemical reactions inside the battery to create even more electrons.

HOW FUEL CELLS WORK: Just like batteries, a fuel cell is a device that uses chemical reactions to convert hydrogen and oxygen into water, producing electricity in the process. A battery eventually goes dead when all the chemicals are used up, but in a fuel cell, there is a constant flow of chemicals into the cell. The voltage produced by fuel cells can be used to power lights, electrical appliances, and laptops, as well as cars and trucks. Fuel cells are light, more efficient than internal combustion engines, and don’t produce damaging emissions. They are currently expensive to manufacture, however.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 14th April 2010

Blueprint for ‘Artificial Leaf’

Mimics Mother Nature and helps to

turn water to hydrogen for fuel

ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2010) — Scientists have presented a design strategy to produce the long-sought artificial leaf, which could harness Mother Nature’s ability to produce energy from sunlight and water in the process called photosynthesis. The new recipe, based on the chemistry and biology of natural leaves, could lead to working prototypes of an artificial leaf that capture solar energy and use it efficiently to change water into hydrogen fuel, they stated.

Their report was scheduled for the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Francisco. It was among more than 12,000 scientific reports scheduled for presentation at the meeting, one of the largest scientific gatherings of 2010.

“This concept may provide a new vista for the design of artificial photosynthetic systems based on biological paradigms and build a working prototype to exploit sustainable energy resources,” Tongxiang Fan, Ph.D. and colleagues Di Zhang, Ph.D. and Han Zhou, Ph.D., reported, They are with the State Key Lab of Matrix Composites at Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China.

Fan pointed out that using sunlight to split water into its components, hydrogen and oxygen, is one of the most promising and sustainable tactics to escape current dependence on coal, oil, and other traditional fuels. When burned, those fuels release carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Combustion of hydrogen, in contrast, forms just water vapor. That appeal is central to the much-discussed “Hydrogen Economy,” and some auto companies, such as Toyota, have developed hydrogen-fueled cars. Lacking, however, is a cost-effective sustainable way to produce hydrogen.

With that in mind, Fan and co-workers decided to take a closer look at the leaf, nature’s photosynthetic system, with plans to use its structure as a blueprint for their next generation of artificial systems. Not too surprisingly, the structure of green leaves provides them an extremely high light-harvesting efficiency. Within their architecture are structures responsible focusing and guiding of solar energy into the light-harvesting sections of the leaf, and other functions.

The scientists decided to mimic that natural design in the development of a blueprint for artificial leaf-like structures. It led them to report their recipe for the “Artificial Inorganic Leaf” (AIL), based on the natural leaf and titanium dioxide (TiO2) — a chemical already recognized as a photocatalyst for hydrogen production.

The scientists first infiltrated the leaves of Anemone vitifolia — a plant native to China — with titanium dioxide in a two-step process. Using advanced spectroscopic techniques, the scientists were then able to confirm that the structural features in the leaf favorable for light harvesting were replicated in the new TiO2 structure. Excitingly, the AIL are eight times more active for hydrogen production than TiO2 that has not been “biotemplated” in that fashion. AILs also are more than three times as active as commercial photo-catalysts. Next, the scientists embedded nanoparticles of platinum into the leaf surface. Platinum, along with the nitrogen found naturally in the leaf, helps increase the activity of the artificial leaves by an additional factor of ten.

In his ACS presentation, Fan reported on various aspects of Artificial Inorganic Leaf production, their spectroscopic work to better understand the macro- and microstructure of the photocatalysts, and their comparison to previously reported systems. The activity of these new “leaves,” are significantly higher than those prepared with classic routes. Fan attributes these results to the hierarchical structures derived from natural leaves:

“Our results may represent an important first step towards the design of novel artificial solar energy transduction systems based on natural paradigms, particularly based on exploring and mimicking the structural design. Nature still has much to teach us, and human ingenuity can modify the principles of natural systems for enhanced utility.”

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 9th April 2010

Danish Researchers Reveal New

Hydrogen Storage Technology

ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2005) — Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have invented a technology which may be an important step towards the hydrogen economy: a hydrogen tablet that effectively stores hydrogen in an inexpensive and safe material.

With the new hydrogen tablet, it becomes much simpler to use the environmentally-friendly energy of hydrogen. Hydrogen is a non-polluting fuel, but since it is a light gas it occupies too much volume, and it is flammable. Consequently, effective and safe storage of hydrogen has challenged researchers world-wide for almost three decades. At the Technical University of Denmark, DTU, an interdisciplinary team has developed a hydrogen tablet which enables storage and transport of hydrogen in solid form.

“Should you drive a car 600 km using gaseous hydrogen at normal pressure, it would require a fuel tank with a size of nine cars. With our technology, the same amount of hydrogen can be stored in a normal gasoline tank”, says Professor Claus Hviid Christensen, Department of Chemistry at DTU.

The hydrogen tablet is safe and inexpensive. In this respect it is different from most other hydrogen storage technologies. You can literally carry the material in your pocket without any kind of safety precaution. The reason is that the tablet consists solely of ammonia absorbed efficiently in sea-salt. Ammonia is produced by a combination of hydrogen with nitrogen from the surrounding air, and the DTU-tablet therefore contains large amounts of hydrogen. Within the tablet, hydrogen is stored as long as desired, and when hydrogen is needed, ammonia is released through a catalyst that decomposes it back to free hydrogen. When the tablet is empty, you merely give it a “shot” of ammonia and it is ready for use again.

“The technology is a step towards making the society independent of fossil fuels” says Professor Jens Nørskov, director of the Nanotechnology Center at DTU. He, Claus Hviid Christensen, Tue Johannessen, Ulrich Quaade and Rasmus Zink Sørensen are the five researchers behind the invention. The advantages of using hydrogen are numerous. It is CO2-free, and it can be produced by renewable energy sources, e.g. wind power.

“We have a new solution to one of the major obstacles to the use of hydrogen as a fuel. And we need new energy technologies – oil and gas will not last, and without energy, there is no modern society”, says Jens Nørskov.

Together with DTU and SeeD Capital Denmark, the researchers have founded the company Amminex A/S, which will focus on the further development and commercialization of the technology.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 9th April 2010

University of North Texas Cool N2Car – Nitrogen powered prototype car


Designed, built, and tested by Dr. Carlos Ordonez (Physics), Dr. Mitty Plummer (Engineering Technology), and Dr. Rick Reidy (Department of Materials Science) of the University of North Texas , this developmental zero emission vehicle employs a cryogenic heat engine and is fueled by liquid nitrogen. This research was funded by the Texas Advanced Technology Program.

Liquid nitrogen vehicle

(Redirected from Liquid nitrogen economy)

A liquid nitrogen vehicle is powered by liquid nitrogen, which is stored in a tank. The engine works by heating the liquid nitrogen in a heat exchanger, extracting heat from the ambient air and using the resulting pressurized gas to operate a piston or rotary engine.

Liquid nitrogen propulsion may also be incorporated in hybrid systems, e.g., battery electric propulsion and fuel tanks to recharge the batteries. This kind of system is called a hybrid liquid nitrogen-electric propulsion. Additionally, regenerative braking can also be used in conjunction with this system.

A liquid nitrogen economy is a hypothetical proposal for a future economy in which the primary form of energy storage and transport is liquid nitrogen. It is proposed as an alternative to liquid hydrogen in some transport modes and as a means of locally storing energy captured fromrenewable sources. An analysis of this concept provides insight into the physical limits of all energy conversion schemes.

Description

Currently, most road vehicles are powered by internal combustion engines burning fossil fuel. If transportation is to be sustainable over the long term, the fuel must be replaced by something else produced by renewable energy. The replacement should not be thought of as an energy source; it is a means of transferring and concentrating energy, a “currency” or energy carrier.

Liquid nitrogen is generated by cryogenic or Stirling engine coolers that liquefy the main component of air, nitrogen (N2). The cooler can be powered by renewable-generated 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 Stirling 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.

Criticisms

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 realised 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 . 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

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 depletes the level of oxygen in the air and causes asphyxiation. Since nitrogen is a colorless and odourless gas that already makes up 78 % of air, such a change is difficult to detect.

Cryogenic liquids are hazardous if spilled. Liquid nitrogen can cause frostbite and can make some materials extremely brittle.

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:

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.

Advantages

Liquid nitrogen vehicles are comparable in many ways to electric vehicles, but use liquid nitrogen to store the energy instead of batteries. Their potential advantages over other vehicles include:

  • Much like electrical vehicles, liquid nitrogen vehicles would ultimately be powered through the electrical grid. Which makes it easier to focus on reducing pollution from one source, as opposed to the millions of vehicles on the road.
  • Transportation of the fuel would not be required due to drawing power off the electrical grid. This presents significant cost benefits. Pollution created during fuel transportation would be eliminated.
  • Lower maintenance costs
  • Liquid nitrogen tanks can be disposed of or recycled with less pollution than batteries.
  • Liquid nitrogen vehicles are unconstrained by the degradation problems associated with current battery systems.
  • The tank may be able to be refilled more often and in less time than batteries can be recharged, with re-fueling rates comparable to liquid fuels.

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.

Details of this work were presented in July 1997 at the Cryogenic Materials Conference in Portland, Oregon. Questions about this program can be addressed to:

Dr. Carlos Ordonez
Department of Physics
PO Box 311427
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas 76203-1427
940-565-4860

Dr. Mitty Plummer
Dept. of Engineering Technology
PO Box 13198
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas 76203
940-565-2846
email: plummer@unt.edu

Dr. Rick Reidy
Dept. of Materials Science
PO Box 305310
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas 76203-5310
940-369-7115
email: reidy@unt.edu

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 9th April 2010

ZMP

to Release 1-seater Electric Robot

Vehicle

Feb 25, 2010 14:53 Tsunenori Tomioka, Nikkei Monozukuri

ZMP Inc will release the “RoboCar G,” a one-seater electric vehicle (EV), expecting that it will be used for the researches of next-generation vehicles.

The RoboCar G is based on a one-seater EV developed by the Next-gen EV Study Group at Gunma University. And ZMP added its technologies and know-how accumulated from the development of the Robocar, a platform for research and development assistance in the field of robotics (See related article), to it.

“We developed the RoboCar G for research and development using a car that is large enough for practical use,” ZMP said.

Sensors that can be mounted on the vehicle include a laser range finder, a stereo camera, a GPS (global positioning system), an IMU (inertial measurement unit), a milliwave radar and a sonar sensor. Sensors will be mounted in accordance with user needs and connected with one another via a network. And the RoboCar G will be shipped as a computer-controlled robot vehicle.

It will be built to order, and its price will be determined based on the types and the number of mounted sensors. Shipment will begin in or after November 2010.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 3rd March 2010

INDIA’S NEW TATA NANO MOTOR CAR

PEOPLE MOVERS FOR THE MASSESS @ $2,000US

nano-red-3nano-interior-3nano-yellow

After getting official over a year ago, missing its original production plan and eventually hitting a wall with respect to production, Tata’s long-awaited Nano vehicle is all set to take to the streets this July. According to a fresh report over at Reuters, the world’s cheapest car (100,000 rupee, or $1,980) is expected to be the hottest thing around when it ships in India in a matter of months. In fact, there are so many orders waiting to be filled, initial owners will be “randomly selected from bookings made between April 9 and 25.” We’re also told that a European variant will be launched by 2011, and while a US model is still a possibility, no firm launch date has been given there. Good luck getting your rear into one, and be sure and shoot us a few hands-on shots if you do.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 29th Sept 2009

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