Nitrogen engine.

[Methusala]

Also to inflate pneumatic tyres.

[planedriver]

It must be very, very expensive. A doctor at a medical centre wanted to charge me $90 for a 2 or 3 second burst of it to freeze a little something off the back of my hand.

I had to laugh, and then told him what it costs per litre. then went elsewhere and they did it for free. 

 

Edited April 4 by planedriver
spelling mistake

[danny_galaga]

On 04/04/2025 at 7:38 AM, facthunter said:

You don't have to heat it to turn it into a gas. Nitrogen is used to remove condensation Aircraft magnetos in the Tropics. Nev

I think the idea is you want it to be quite high pressure, and lots of it, so heat is in the mix there. Possibly running through a 'radiator', which in this case is absorbing heat from the air.

[facthunter]

No IT has to be dry and get rid of condensed moisture inside the Magneto by Absorbtion and evaporation. Nev

[danny_galaga]

6 hours ago, facthunter said:

No IT has to be dry and get rid of condensed moisture inside the Magneto by Absorbtion and evaporation. Nev

What is this a reply to?

[Underwood]

I previously spent a lot of time rebuilding and tuning Motorcycle and mountain bike suspension, I used bottled Nitrogen to recharge units that used the gas instead of a coil spring.

Mainly used as its inert so wont encourage internal corrosion

Air is about 3/4 Nitrogen anyway, but its the oxygen that causes strife.

I've always thought that Oxygen is some sort of dark joke from the big guy, we need it to stay alive but its slowly killing us🤪

[planedriver]

When I first posted this thread, I never imagined that it would stir the thought pot so much, but the response has been really interesting from all.

[spacesailor]

So ! , it seems an overlooked fuel engine .

not ' IC ' / CI / EV OR CA ( COMPRESSED AIR / STEAM ) .

NOW ! , Boffins get your idea's working. 

Two stroke " wasteful " , rotary ! .

Four stroke ! Does not need compression. 

Direct injection liquid  over heating element! .  ( High pressure low volume cylinder )

Exhaust into large volume low pressure,  secondary cylinder ? .

four pot ! , ' Two high P ' & ' two low P ' .

CONFIGURATION ? .

who will make their name ? .

spacesailor

 

[facthunter]

You are wasted Here. space.  Nev

[spacesailor]

Yes but looking at my posted specs It is a two-stroke. 

And yes .

my bro & I made a " compound-steam engine " out of ' high-pressure hydrolic piping. 

It worked fine under ' compressed air .

but the powers to be,  said we would need a " boilermakers " certificate to operate our ' home made ' flash water tube ' boiler. End of a dream .

 spacesailor

[danny_galaga]

2 hours ago, spacesailor said:

Yes but looking at my posted specs It is a two-stroke. 

And yes .

my bro & I made a " compound-steam engine " out of ' high-pressure hydrolic piping. 

It worked fine under ' compressed air .

but the powers to be,  said we would need a " boilermakers " certificate to operate our ' home made ' flash water tube ' boiler. End of a dream .

 spacesailor

So get a boilermaker.

[BrendAn]

On 31/03/2025 at 8:24 PM, onetrack said:

There were some buses that used big flywheels for part of their energy inputs, in Europe and in Africa, in the 1950's, but they were ultimately unsuccessful.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrobus

 

I seem to recall there were further experiments done with buses using flywheels operating in a vacuum in a sealed compartment, but ultimately, this idea was not proceeded with, either.

a good example of stored energy in a flywheel would be inertia starters used on radial engines.

[Moneybox]

At present we're watching Spotlight on channel 7. The Chinese have set up Nichol processing plants that are predominately supplying batteries for the EV industry. It's an environmental disaster.

[onetrack]

I presume you mean "Nickel". Yes, Nickel ore comes in the sulphide form, and processing it releases a lot of sulfuric compounds, which are highly acid. Thus you can get acid waste and aquifers becoming acidified if proper processing/handling care isn't taken. Even the raw ore is quite corrosive.

 

But sulphur is a useful product used in industrial processes, so the sulphur should be extracted and used. The problems start with inadequate environmental controls or controls/regulation that becomes corrupted via bribery, or other forms of corruption - which is possibly all too common in places such as China.

[Moneybox]

26 minutes ago, onetrack said:

I presume you mean "Nickel". Yes, Nickel ore comes in the sulphide form, and processing it releases a lot of sulfuric compounds, which are highly acid. Thus you can get acid waste and aquifers becoming acidified if proper processing/handling care isn't taken. Even the raw ore is quite corrosive.

 

But sulphur is a useful product used in industrial processes, so the sulphur should be extracted and used. The problems start with inadequate environmental controls or controls/regulation that becomes corrupted via bribery, or other forms of corruption - which is possibly all too common in places such as China.

Yes, fortunately English is my first language, I managed 3% in German but I did a bit better in Urdu.

[onetrack]

I worked as a contractor in the Nickel mining industry in the early to mid 1970's, South of Kambalda. Nickel was in huge demand back then, for armaments and armour plating, largely because of the Vietnam War. It was an interesting time. Anaconda Copper of America came to Australia, and formed Anaconda Nickel (Aust), to mine the Nickel S of Widgiemooltha (this company wasn't the Anaconda Nickel that Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest formed later on in the late 1980's, to mine nickel at Murrin Murrin - "Twiggy" just "borrowed" the name).

 

Anaconda Nickel of the 1970's spent money like water, and their financial controls were poor, to say the least - but they were one of the richest mining companies in America. Then the copper price went way down, and the Chile Govt of Salvador Allende nationalised their copper mines in Chile, with little or no compensation.

 

The Anaconda company and its subsidiaries effectively became almost bankrupt over a very short period of time, and they had to sell what assets they had left, to try and survive. Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) took over their copper assets in the late 1970's, including the huge Anaconda copper mine, smelter and refinery in Butte, Montana - but ARCO then closed down all the Anaconda operations by 1982, leaving Butte a ghost town - and a seriously contaminated one at that.

 

The History of Anaconda Copper and the Anaconda Company - https://utahrails.net/mining/anaconda-history.php

 

The sad story of Butte, Montana - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-profits-of-doom/302177/

 

The story of Butte above, was written in 2001. The cleanup of the massive levels of toxic waste and water contamination from Anaconda's mining, still goes on in Montana today.

 

https://dailymontanan.com/2024/06/28/down-with-dirty-dirt-and-waste-in-place-in-butte/

 

 

Edited April 6 by onetrack

[facthunter]

Nickel will always be in demand. Sulphur is easily supplied by the Oil refining Process. Usually Crude oil is about 7% Sulphur. Sulphur when burned S02 is really bad for making acid rain, . H2S is rotten egg gas. H2S04 is Sulphuric acid. Nev

[danny_galaga]

11 hours ago, onetrack said:

I presume you mean "Nickel". Yes, Nickel ore comes in the sulphide form, and processing it releases a lot of sulfuric compounds, which are highly acid. Thus you can get acid waste and aquifers becoming acidified if proper processing/handling care isn't taken. Even the raw ore is quite corrosive.

 

But sulphur is a useful product used in industrial processes, so the sulphur should be extracted and used. The problems start with inadequate environmental controls or controls/regulation that becomes corrupted via bribery, or other forms of corruption - which is possibly all too common in places such as China.

While I'm sure there must be some corruption in China, the perpetrators have to really be in the know, as they have the death penalty for such things there.

But other Asian countries...

[onetrack]

Back to the Hydrogen Dream - below is a very good and a very comprehensive (and lengthy) article outlining the near-total failure of the Hydrogen Dream, in Public Transport, in the EU.

 

Essentially, only a couple of Hydrogen Transport schemes remain in operation, and they are only "viable" (and I use the word loosely), because of a ready supply of waste hydrogen from industrial processes in nearby major industrial zones. Even at that, the Hydrogen buses are still more expensive overall than battery-electric buses.

 

An interesting point is the amount of hydrogen loss caused by leakage. It's around 1%, all the time - from tanks, from vehicles, from everywhere H2 is made or transported or contained.

That's quite a bit of loss as compared to fossil fuels loss.

Even taking into account ships sinking, vehicle crashes, and pipeline failures, I wouldn't think that fossil fuels losses or wastage would come anywhere near 1% of the total volume extracted and transported and used.

 

The bottom line is, the battery-electric bus is making great strides into the public transport realm, and hydrogen is becoming a more distant dream each passing year.

 

https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/14/hydrogen-vs-battery-buses-a-european-transit-reality-check/

 

Edited April 16 by onetrack
...forgot to add link