Neeraj nuclear power car

CAR POWERED BY NUCLEAR ENERGY

1. JYOTHI ENGINEERING COLLEGE CHERUTHURUTHY DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY OF CAILCUT NUCLEAR POWERED CAR SEMINAR Presented by NEERAJ.P.VINCENT (JYAMEME094) In partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 1 jyothi engineering college

2. VISION “To provide quality education of international standards in Mechanical Engineering and promote professionalism with ethical values, to work in a team and to face global challenges." MISSION To provide an education that builds a solid foundation in Mechanical Engineering. To prepare graduates for employment, higher education and enable a lifelong growth in their profession. To develop communication, leadership and entrepreneurship skills to enable good knowledge transfer. To inculcate world class research program in Mechanical Engineering. 2 jyothi engineering college

3. CONTENTS SI,CI and HCCI combustion What is HCCI combustion? Benefits of HCCI Drawbacks of HCCI Laser -Assisted Homogeneous Charge Ignition Experimental setup Results Conclusion My Suggestion Reference

4. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF NUCLEAR POWERED CAR BACKGROUND –RTGs RTGs HOW IT WORKS? ADVANTAGES/ DISADVANTAGES CURRENT APPLICATIONS OF RTGs CONCLUSION 4 jyothi engineering college

5. INTRODUCTION The main power to drive automobiles are: Electric Fossil fuel ( Petrol, Diesel etc .) Hybrid (electric +fossil) The fossil fuels are depleting day by day so there is a need to find alternate fuels to power automobiles Research is carried out to power automobiles using nuclear energy 5 jyothi engineering college

6. jyothi engineering college 6 RTG(Radioisotope thermoelectric generator) are used to convert nuclear energy to electric energy The main fuel used in nuclear powered car (NPC) is 238 Pu

7. HISTORY OF NUCLEAR POWERED CAR The  Ford Nucleon  was a scale model concept car developed by ford in 1958 as a design on how a nuclear-powered car might look. The design did not include an internal-combustion engine; rather, the vehicle was to be powered by a small nuclear reactor in the rear of the vehicle, based on the assumption that this would one day be possible by reducing sizes. The car was to use a steam engine powered by uranium fission similar to how nuclear submarines work. The mock-up of the car can be viewed at the Henry ford museum in Dearborn Michigan jyothi engineering college 7

8. FORD NUCLEON 1958 jyothi engineering college 8

9. BACKGROUND – RTGS First developed in the US in the 1950s by Mound Laboratories in Ohio Initially developed under the general designation: Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) First used in 1961 as SNAP 3 to power a navy spacecraft. – Weight: 4lbs, Power: 2.5W, Life: 280 days First Terrestrial use in “Fairway Rock” Alaska in 1966 (-1995) 9 jyothi engineering college

10. RADIO ISOTOPIC THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS(RTG) 10 jyothi engineering college

11. HOW IT WORKS Energy Storage Medium: Radioisotopic Material capable of producing heat Direct conversion of heat to electricity – Seebeck Effect 11 jyothi engineering college

12. GPHS module jyothi engineering college 12

13. SEEBECK EFFECT Production of an electromotive force & consequently an electric current in a loop of material consisting of a loop of material consisting of at least two dissimilar conductors when two junctions are maintained at different temperatures jyothi engineering college 13

14. Criterion for selection of Isotopes 100 days < Half-Life < 100 years No gamma emission Power > 0.1 W( th )/g jyothi engineering college 14

15. ADVANTAGES Long Lifetime of continuous power Minimal maintenance needed (No moving parts) Small size and weight Independent of any external input Safety (No parts prone to failure ) Small quantity of isotopes is needed for long power supply ie it works according to the half life period of the isotope 15 jyothi engineering college

16. DISADVANTAGES 16 jyothi engineering college The main thing standing in the way of creating a nuclear-powered car is the power source is radioactive, so this vehicle would require lots of shielding. Without proper shielding, the radioactivity of the power source could kill people in and near the car Low Efficiency (<10%) Radioisotope decay ( ~0.7-0.8% power loss per year) Safety Radioactive Co n t amin a tion Proliferation

17. CURRENT APPLICATIONS Power Source in space Power for remote facilities/ equipment Curiosity Rover Unmanned Buoy 17 jyothi engineering college

18. Current Battery Powered Vehicle Tesla Model S Power output: 270kW / 362 hp Battery Capacity: 85 kWh Range: ≈ 300 miles 18 jyothi engineering college

19. 4 hp (3kW) Car! -> Max Speed: 22 mph Range: However far you can drive in 3 years at 22 mph! (578160 miles ) The power produced by 238 Pu is 0.56 W/g 1kg of 238 Pu At $4000/g, 1kg of 238 Pu will cost: $4 million! RTG powered vehicle 19 jyothi engineering college

20. Nissan Leaf Toyota RAV4 EV Ford Focus EV 50 Chevy Volt Porsche 918 100 150 300 Tesla S 250 y = 3.053x 200 10 20 30 60 70 80 90 R a nge (miles) 40 50 Battery Capacity (kWh) BATTERY CAPACITY VS. RANGE 1 kWh → 3.053miles range!! 20 jyothi engineering college

21. Possible Improvements Stirling Engine – 4x efficiency over pure RTGs 21 jyothi engineering college

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23. CONCLUSION Nuclear power is the future fuel in the automobile industries. Which makes the transportation easier and ecofriendly one also makes the human life secure because of no emission. This fuel is better solution to the problem of fuel depletion The only problem is the heavy cost of the fuel. But it will compensate after a long using of the car or other RTG powered vehicles jyothi engineering college 23

24. R e f e r ences [1] R.C.O’Brien , R.MAmbrosi , N.P. Bannister , S.D Howe ,H.V Atkinson “Safe radioisotope thermoelectric generators and heat sources for space applications”, Journal of nuclear materials , 2008,506-521. [2] J. R. Lee, G. H. Miley , N. Luo , M. Ragheb . 2007 . “Radioisotopic Battery with Vacuum Electrical Insulation ”. [ 3] < http://www.ne.doe.gov/pdfFiles/factSheets/SpaceRadioisotopePowerSystemsAS RG.pdf>. 24 jyothi engineering college

25. Questions? 25 jyothi engineering college