Some of these ideas are not new, just untested. This is actually an old page.
For the most current information available from this site (January 2009), download my new book, Compressed Air Power Secrets: Pneumatics for Inventors.
2. Jet Pump Supercharges Compressor
3. Auto Conversion Using Engine as Compressor
Equalization Engine: the secret is finally out!
A letter from a friend who has studied air cars for many years:
It has been my goal to tell the world about air cars, and Bob Neal’s patent, “Compressor Unit” is the key to my message in addition to the rest of the information that is available.
I was already working on the equalization engine idea in 1988 when I learned of Neal’s patent, and ironically, the patent’s secret was what I was already working on (I was even calling it an "equalizer"!) but since it was a secret I didn’t know that. As a result, Neal’s patent and my search for its secret distracted me for many years. Finally a few years ago I went back to the equalization engine idea, did the math for the first time, and was astounded. Since then I have realized that Neal's patent was probably an equalization engine. Some things were apparently deleted from the assembly drawings before they were submitted to the patent office.
The basic idea of the equalization engine (of which Neal's design is just one configuration) is that ambient air is compressed by mixing it with existing pressurized air and then returning it to the tank with a mechanical compressor which only has a little work to do; the tank air (a sizable reserve that experiences a very small pressure drop when it's used to mix with the engine's incoming atmosphere) does most of the work with no losses. The ambient air is compressed for almost nothing and the ambient heat it bears is free energy.
The key to making this work is that the air engine has to have higher pressure air than is available in the tank. This can be accomplished by boosting the pressure of a little of the tank air with a compressor that's inside the tank (to conserve its heat losses) or directly with electric air heaters which is simpler. The result is that the air pretty much flows out of the tank, through the air engine and compressor, picking up ambient air along the way and then flowing back into the tank more or less on its own remaining pressure. That is an idealized version; the hardware is there to assure the completion of this process which upgrades existing heat so it can be used to operate air powered equipment.
The Bob Neal patent shows all but the key elements that were omitted to protect his secret. To make the device function as stated in the patent, the following has to be added to the machine or its description:
The purpose of the device is to compress air so cheaply that the ambient heat in the atmospheric intake provides many times the energy needed to operate the device, leaving extra energy to run other machinery. This is a heat pump, not a perpetual motion machine. The tank must be much larger than the compressor displacement; that's a key to it. According to the math there is no inherent advantage in higher tank pressures.
The effect accomplished is to do "99%" (not a precise number) of the compression work by mixing the fresh atmospheric intake with air that is already compressed. The "1%" of the compression work left to do is easily accomplished by the motion of heated tank air through the system and back into the tank, bearing atmospheric air and its internal energy or ambient heat.
This is a solar energy device operated by a constant pressure reserve. The input of solar energy in ambient air constantly replenishes, and then some, the small amount of energy lost to various engine processes including the 1% of the work that has to be done mechanically of pushing the air into the tank.
It is probable that our world petroleum supply is more than half gone. Air technology will replace the petroleum base of our economy or our convenient way of life will collapse with serious and lasting consequences.
I have done my part by making this information public. Key assistance in learning Neal’s secret came from others over the years. It is not my problem to save the world from its own greed or to determine if the world even deserves to be saved. I am putting the information out there and letting fate take its own course. It is possible that I have done the wrong thing if by some stretch of the imagination I have made it possible for civilization to continue at a high level of industrialization. The lazy thinking of the human machine that has managed to use millions of year's worth of petroleum in 100 years is not guaranteed to suddenly turn into intelligent enlightenment should we happen to put forth the effort to convert everything to run on ambient heat and compressed air instead of fossils.
Imagine: free energy for everybody. The implications are not just staggering: they are terrifying. Can you imagine the traffic situation, should transportation become affordable to all?
Your Friend
Luther
Jet Pump Supercharges Compressor
Tank drives venturi pump to entrain high volume of atmosphere which supercharges a compressor. Volume is thus derived from a compressor with no moving parts while pressure is derived from a piston or screw-type compressor. Compressor charges small insulated tank which is used as a drive tank to feed engine.
Auto Conversion Using Engine as Compressor
Instead of the usual idea of converting the car's gas engine to run as an air engine, convert it to run as a compressor, leaving drive shaft etc. in place. Use clutch to unload compressor for starting the car without the extra load. Regenerative braking will automatically be in place. Use a small air motor such as an expansive turbine (available from Tech Development Inc.) in place of the existing starter motor. This is the engine that runs the wheels. Details to be worked out of course.