A submerged CAES
Earlier this year in Europe, German generation giant E.ON gave an engineering professor at Nottingham University, Seamus Garvey, £236,000 ($333,500) to build two CAES prototypes—the first on land and then an underwater wave-powered version. Garvey, who thinks the idea makes “abundant engineering sense,” envisions large amounts of compressed air being stored under the sea in gigantic cone-like flexible containers, dubbed “energy bags.”
“Renewable energy primary harvesting machines would collect the energy in the form of compressed-air, then if the energy available exceeds the demand for electricity at that time, some air is inducted into storage, but the heat is extracted from that and fed into a small fraction of air that is being expanded. This presupposes that your ‘wind farm’ or ‘tidal energy farm’ or ‘wave energy farm’ or integrated mix of all of these is set up to deliver ‘base load’ most of the time,” Garvey told POWER.
At a depth of about 1,970 feet, he calculates that the bags could store some 6,945 MWh of energy for every cubic meter. Garvey’s prototypes are in the process of development and should be ready for testing early next year.
The compressed air engine
Lately, compressed air has received much attention for its ability to run small engines as well. The Air Car, developed by Luxembourg-based MDI Group founder and former Formula One engineer Guy Nègre, is powered by a compressed air engine (CAE). It uses compressed air to push its pistons when running at speeds under 35 mph. At higher speeds—it can run up to 96 mph—the compressed air is heated by a secondary fuel source (biofuel, gasoline, or diesel) and expands before it enters the engine. The Air Car claims a fuel efficiency of about 100 mpg. The air is compressed using power from a regular electric outlet.
According to MDI Vice President Shiva Vencat, a company licensee, Zero Pollution Motors (http://zeropollutionmotors.us/), is gearing up to launch a six-seater, family version of the compressed air car in the U.S. in 2010 (Figure 2). This car will cost about $18,000.
2. Air fuel. Zero Pollution Motors is planning to launch the six-seater, 4-door version of a car powered by compressed air in the U.S. by 2010. When running at speeds higher than 35 mph, this car uses a secondary fuel to heat and expand the compressed air before it enters the engine. The air is compressed using power from an electrical outlet. Courtesy: Zero Pollution Motors
Earlier this year, India’s Tata Motors had claimed it would launch a version of the compressed air car in that country by the year’s end. But in August, Tata told Indian newspapers that the technology of this car is still in nascent stages, and the “launch of cars fitted with such engines…in the near future is ruled out.”
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