Liquid Nitrogen as a Non-Polluting Vehicle Fuel

This work examines the capability of several energy conversion processes to provide sufficient energy to develop viable liquid nitrogen-powered vehicles. To use liquid nitrogen as a non-polluting fuel, a multiple-reheat open Rankine cycle and a closed Brayton cycle are studied for use in cryogenic heat engines. As a proof of the principle of using liquid nitrogen as a fuel, an automobile was converted to run on liquid nitrogen in 1997. Earlier work has shown that the energy available by operating various thermodynamic cycles between atmospheric temperature and liquid nitrogen temperatures (77 K) can provide more energy per unit mass than is available from current lead acid batteries and some projected battery technologies.