Not hydrogen, not electricity, but liquid air: This engine is about to revolutionize global mobility
A man named Peter Dearman used a can of antifreeze to demonstrate a backyard revolution that could save millions of lives. Dearman's discovery of liquid air applications has proven a solution to a conundrum that's baffled the engineering sector for a hundred years.
Cold energy and liquid air technology
It's not natural to make an association between cold and energy, but in the case of Peter Dearman's discovery, the intuition is incorrect. Dearman's technology is based on the premise that two objects of different temperatures - even super low temperatures - will exchange energy.
This energy exchange is where the magic happens. Obviously, Dearman was not the first person to discover this. But he was the first to take the concept far enough to develop a machine that's set to revolutionize the workings of our food system, which has the potential to save millions of lives.
Dearman Engine Company holds liquid air engine demonstration
The Dearman Engine Company, Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA), Air Products and the Loughborough University formed a consortium that won an IDP8 grant from the Technology Strategy Board to test a Dearman engine fitted in a commercial vehicle in 2014.
The grant aims specifically to develop and demonstrate disruptive technologies for low-carbon vehicles that could significantly reduce carbon emissions. The demonstrations will test the Dearman engine's reefer cooling process on a refrigerated truck, providing zero-emission power and cooling. Liquid air is an exciting innovation that could make a major contribution to the low-carbon challenge facing the transport sector.
The Dearman Engine and its contribution to zero-emissions energy
The Dearman has to be validated in a mobile environment because after all, it's in the transport sector that the cooling technology will be used.
The vehicle management systems, like filling procedures, will also be demonstrated during the testing process. Waste heat recovery from combustion engines is also a focus. The Dearman Engine Company (DEC) was brought to life in 2011 to conceptualize an engine that runs on nitrogen (liquid air). It was vital for the DEC to find partners with the ideal experience and expertise to develop the company's liquid air engine technology competencies.
Dearman Engines employ the same principles as steam engines, but they run on what can literally be called "thin air" instead of steam. It's possible for air to exist in various forms if it's cooled and compressed enough. It will also return to a gaseous state immediately as pressure is released.
It's this process that's driving the development of the Dearman Engine. What Peter pulled off in his garden shed was astonishing. He retrofitted his lawnmower to run on liquid air and injected antifreeze into the piston chamber on each stroke.
Antifreeze is an agent that's a particularly good heat exchanger, so heat from outside the chamber had a much faster route into it. This delivered the necessary isothermal expansion and the efficiency of the engine was increased.
Applications of the liquid air Dearman Engine
Dearman's technology has major commercial and environmental implications. Liquid air systems on farms could generate power and refrigeration at the same time, for example, by running a cooling conveyor belt for fruit processing.
Waste minimization would be a tremendous economic dividend as well.
The application of the Dearman Engine has implications for on-highway and off-highway systems, such as industrial equipment, waterways, mining, infrastructure, and urban vehicles.
Benefits of the Dearman Engine
There are two overriding benefits of the Dearman Engine technology:
- Liquid air is a fuel source that every country can produce for itself.
- Refrigeration systems that run on liquid air will reduce air pollution because they only emit clean air.
It remains to be seen how the Dearman Engine will positively affect the food transport industry in the future, but there's no doubt that Peter Dearman's backyard revelation is generating a bunch of excitement about green power.