Questions have been put forward on this forum or in private messages about the comparison of specific energy values for different “fuels” (in MJ per litre):
Petrol 30
Diesel 34
LPG 25
Natural gas 3.4
Methane (200 bars) 7.2
Compressed air (300 bars) 0.16
However the efficiency of engines using “conventional fuels” is .5 on average, whereas our compressed-air engine (or motor) has an efficiency of
.85
This is a fair and objective calculation and will not be further discussed or justified.
The overall efficiency of various fuels, from generation of its energy until consumption in use by the respective engines gives following results:
Petrol engine driven vehicles 9.4%
Diesel powered 13.0%
Electric powered 13.2%
Compressed air powered 20.0%
These calculations and tests were done with identical “vehicles” and should therefore apply to any form of “vehicle”.
It is only fair to mention that the electric power has an advantage over compressed air until installed in the “vehicle”, where the important weight of its batteries changes the final result.
Further advantages of the compressed-air engine as developed by our company (
www.mdi.lu) are:
- very low weight 25KW = 28 kgs
- very low volume (no ancillary equipment)
- very low cost (weigth = cost in mechanical construction)
- very high torque as from zero revs (comparable to electric motor)
- zero pollution in use (generation of energy may cause pollution)
- enhanced application spectrum (inside use, low weight, low volume)
That's it for today, more tomorrow .............
