Welcome to DARLAP NFP Homepage

  DARLAP is an acronym for "Demonstration", "Advocacy" (and) "Research" (of) "Liquid Air Power".  

     We at DARLAP believe that although "liquid air" http://www.encyclopedia.farlex.com/liquid+air  lost out to gasoline a century ago as a motor fuel, we believe that for reasons of the increasing scarcity of crude oil, the uncertainty of uninterrupted supply, it's ever increasing cost  on the world maket, and the likely environmental damage resulting from the continued use of oil based products, that liquid air deserves another look. A century ago, it was agreed that petroleum based fuels were the most practical source of portable power, followed by liquid air, which was followed in turn by electric batteries.  The same still holds true today. During the "steam era", considerable excitement was generated by the fact that liquid air could be poured into the boiler of a steam engine which would then run without fire, the liquid air being "boiled" by heat from the atmosphere. Between 1899 and 1903 the "Liquid Air Car Company" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Air was in operation, but in spite of somewhat successful demonstrations soon went out of business.

     There have been many pertinent discoveries in the space program, the government sponsored "nitrogen economy" research of the late 1980s, a somewhat successful experimental car built by the University of North Texas http://www.mtsc.unt.edu/CoolN2Car.html, the introduction of small liquid air generators for use in the making of fog for stage illusions, and the research into cryogenics in general. We feel that enough "bits and pieces" can be gleaned to ensure the construction of a viable system for the storage of portable power through the liquefaction and evaporation of ordinary air.  DARLAP has designed a rotary heat exchanger capable of stripping frost and ice through centrifugal force eliminating the need for defrosting which has plagued previous efforts. Since this heat exchanger must rotate at a high rate of speed and consequently have good enough bearings to withstand resultant gyroscopic forces, it was decided to make this the main platform of a reaction turbine of the type often referred to as "Hero's engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of Alexandria  which when combined with a nozzle perfected by Gustaf DeLaval in 1897, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Laval_nozzle makes a very promising basic design.  We also plan to investigate "inertia braking" whereby slowing or stopping the vehicle would accelerate the turbine which at this point would be acting like a flywheel, thereby salvaging energy which would be used when resuming speed.

     Economy of both operation and construction is a very important criteria.  We visualize the use of cheap, lightweight, and easy to form plastics for the greater part of the turbines as no high temperatures are involved, and beryllium copper or aluminum where heat transfer takes place. Additional devices shall be utilized to salvage as much energy from the exhaust as is deemed practical.  These devices may take the form of a thermopile, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/thermopile   possibly a "Stirling Cycle" device, http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/semester1/c28_heating_stirling.html or a boundary layer turbine, often referred to as "Tesla's Turbine" www.gyroscope.com/d.asp?product=TESLATURBINE   to salvage the air pressure flowing off the main turbine and it's exhaust. As we plan to "stack" a number of units to fulfill a wider range of power needs and physical size must be kept to a minimum, a more conventional axial flow turbine may better fulfill our requirements. 

     The almost miraculous capabilities of modern computer controlled drafting and machining operations enable prototype creation to be accomplished in far less time and at very much lower cost. Liquid abrasive machining can cut complex shapes out of flat plates, and laser or ball end mills under computer control can carve out three dimensional molds and cores directly from the original drawing.

Specifically, our plans are as follows:

     First, to perfect a design for a liquid air operated turbine of from five to ten horsepower, build a prototype, and bench test it. (a number of these units would be connected to match power requirements) After ascertaining the details of a design which best fulfills our criteria, we plan to build a number of these turbines and to offer them for sale for the purpose of testing by interested organizations. If demand merits it, we plan to hire some staff to do some of the machining and assembly "in house".  We have little idea of the worldwide demand for these research turbines, and we may offer some for sale to manufacturers who wish to purchase engines for installation in their products. We would anticipate that as liquid air technology gained acceptance that existing engine manufacturers would take over the building of them, in which they could be expected to be more successful than DARLAP would be. 

     As funding permits, we would then install these turbines in small units such as forklifts, golf carts, floor sweepers, riding lawn mowers, powered rickshaws, and garden tractors for purposes of demonstration. These units would be offered for sale to manufacturers who might wish to test them with an eye to future production. We anticipate the earliest interest to be from manufacturers of mining equipment, floor sweepers, indoor transportation devices, and forklifts which would enjoy all the advantages of  batteries, but without the recharging time and high cost of replacement.

     We see that slightly modified golf carts are increasingly finding use on the streets, especially near retirement communities, and liquid air power would likely find ready acceptance for such vehicles. 

      As a next step, we would advocate and attempt to demonstrate the practicality of utilizing liquid air as a fuel in taxicabs, city or school busses, police vehicles and local delivery trucks which had air liquefaction capability at their "home base".  It is likely that this would be further encourged by some form of governmental incentive for "zero pollution" vehicles. It is hoped that by this time the government would begin to encourage the building of air liquefaction facilities every 500 miles or so on the interstate highway system, and motivated by the demand for the low cost fuel, that trucks would be built to use it.  Very roughly, one of the pressurized water (PWR A4W/A1G) nuclear reactors built by General Electric and well proven in the "Nimitz class" aircraft carriers would be expected to run at least 1000 big trucks at one time. These reactors, and similar ones used in submarines seem to have little or no ill effect on crewmen working in close proximity.

     We feel that villages in the third world which were too impoverished to buy petroleum based fuels could greatly improve their standard of living by liquefying air through solar, wind, water, or geothermal power and to use the liquid air for refrigeration, transportation, and mechanized farming.  Another long term goal is to encourage the building of air liquefaction devices used as "super heat pumps" to heat appartment houses, hospitals, and factories and the resultant "free" liquid air sold to the occupants and workers as fuel for their automobiles.

     Our long term goal is for liquid air produced by solar, wind, geothermal, water, or nuclear to fulfill virtually all our surface transportation and agricultural needs, and for our aircraft to use "biodiesel" from grain, or refined from coal.

Contact information:

  Telephone :
     260 692-6322 

FAX: 
     none at present

Postal address:

DARLAP NFP

1264 West 200 North

 Decatur, Indiana,  46733, USA

Electronic mail 
     Bill_Michaels@adamswells.com