A breakfast seminar, hosted by Dearman Engine and focusing on “Liquid air – zero-emission power and cooling for the transport sector?” has been scheduled for Automotive World’s Megatrends India ’14, which takes place in Chennai on 25 February 2014.
Liquid air is now widely recognised as a powerful, new zero-emissions transport fuel. A recent report from the UK Centre for Low Carbon Futures found liquid air is capable of reducing diesel consumption in heavy commercial vehicles by 25%, eliminating NOx and particulate matter (PM) emissions from vehicle refrigeration, and providing a fast-refuelling zero-emissions alternative for small vehicles such as auto-rickshaws (tuk-tuks), a vital means of transport but also a major source of air pollution.
Liquid air should be of particular interest in India; recently Agriculture and Processing Minister, SharadPawar, told the Indian Parliament that 40% of the total agriculture produce was wasted every year in India, and that only setting up more large cold storages and better post-harvesting facilities can curtail waste. It is estimated $12bn of investment in cold chain infrastructure is required over the next five years.
Liquid air engines could be used in vehicle refrigeration, in combination with a downsized diesel engine to form a ‘heat hybrid’, where waste heat from the diesel is used to boost the expansion of the liquid air, or as stand-alone zero emissions engine for auto-rickshaws. The extreme cold of liquid air makes it highly efficient ‘fuel’ for cold trucks or Transport Refrigeration Units (TRUs), where it can eliminate fatal air contaminants like NOx and PM and massively reduce CO2 emissions. Liquid air can be produced from renewable electricity, making the fuel effectively zero carbon, and the engines could run equally well on liquid nitrogen which is already widely available.
A major new report on the potential economic and environmental benefits of liquid air technologies in rapidly industrialising economies is being written for publication in late Spring this year – is it indeed a potential “leapfrog technology”?
The first liquid air engine goes into field trials in 2014, providing zero emission refrigeration, with fleet trials planned for 2015, in a project backed by the Dearman Engine Company (DEC), MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association), Air Products and Loughborough University, with funding from the UK Government.
This breakfast seminar as part of the Automotive World Megatrends India ’14 summit offers a unique opportunity to hear more about liquid air, the report’s preliminary findings, and debate the issues with its authors.
Organised by Automotive World, Megatrends India ’14 is a two-day conference focusing on Fuel Efficiency & Emissions Reduction, Manufacturing and Supplier Outlook.
The breakfast briefing will take place in the morning of day one of the conference, on 25 February 2014. It will be a boardroom style breakfast with around 20 industry experts.
To register for this event, please go to http://megatrendsindia.automotiveworld.com/register/.
For further details on this event and/or the breakfast, please contact the event manager, Amanda James: amanda.james@automotiveworld.com / +44 (0) 292 070 9318
