Carbonic Acid Engines

Updated: 5 Feb 2013

Carbon-acid cars added

Now and again, in the very early history of motor cars and aeroplanes, you will encounter references to a "carbonic acid motor", usually quickly followed by a statement that the machine in which it was installed was a total failure. Information on this method of deploying power is very hard to come by, but here are a few gleanings.
Carbonic acid is an old name for carbon dioxide. A carbonic acid motor (or engine) is driven by pressure which may simply come from a reservoir of compressed gas, or be produced by evaporating liquified carbon dioxide. A liquified gas takes up much less space than its compressed gaseous equivalent, giving the possibility of greater energy storage. Carbon dioxide was used for the liquid version because it is fairly easily liquified, unlike the so-called "permanent" gases such as nitrogen and oxygen, which require more energy and more complex machinery to liquify, and are much harder to store for any length of time.
All gases have a critical temperature; below this temperature, the gas can be liquefied by the application of pressure alone. Carbon dioxide has a critical temperature of 31.1 °C, and so can usually be liquefied just by compression. The critical temperatures of oxygen and nitrogen are -118°C and -146°C respectively, and they are therefore much harder to liquify, as considerable pre-cooling is needed as well as compression.
Calling carbon dioxide "carbonic acid" is an obsolete usage. Nowadays carbonic acid refers to H2CO3, a weak dibasic acid formed when carbon dioxide dissolves in water; this acid exists only in solution.

THE LAY-HAIGHT TORPEDO: 1885
In 1884 or 85 the US Navy exhibited a Lay-Haight torpedo, powered by a reservoir of compressed carbonic acid that worked a Brotherhood engine connected to the screw. The torpedo was wire-guided and exploded from the shore, so was presumably intended for coastal defence only.

LILIENTHAL'S ORNITHOPTERS: 1893
Lilienthal holds an honoured position as one of the pioneers of flight. Like several others before him, Lilienthal never quite abandoned the idea that flapping wings was the key to motion. In 1893 and again in 1896, he built gliders with flapping wings in the ornithopter fashion. Each machine had a lightweight carbonic acid engine that produced about two horsepower (1.5 kilowatts). The engine was supposed to make the wing tips flap up and down and move the aircraft forward. Neither model was successful.

CARS POWERED BY CARBONIC ACID

Left: A carbonic-acid car by The New Power Company: 1899
The New Power Company was based in Trenton, New Jersey.
The following is extracted from The English Motor-Car Journal, 1899
"The carbon-dioxide is admitted to the engines under the full vapour tension of the liquid under normal temperature, the gas being heated to a high temperature before being admitted to the cylinders of the engines. One company is reported to have secured a factory at Kingston, N.Y., in which locality several very extensive cement factories are operated. The reputed cause for the selection of this centre as a site for the factory is that arrangements have been made with these cement companies for the gathering and storing of the carbon-dioxide generated during the burning of the cement."
A telling point there is the need to heat the CO2 before it could be applied effectively. Obviously some extra fuel would be needed for that, so the vehicle was not powered entirely by carbonic acid.

According to The Horseless Age, Oct 1898, the liquid CO2 was stored in the tubular frame of the New Power Company vehicle and heated to 90 degrees (Fahrenheit or Centigrade?) by a flame generated by "Sestalit" a patent fuel of the era. "The difficulty hitherto experienced with carbonic acid gas, when used for power, has been that the rapid evaporation would cause the valves to freeze. This difficulty the inventor claims to have overcome through a new valve which positively cuts off the current from the retaining cylinder at every stroke. One lever only is used for steering and regulating speed, while a second is required for reversing the motor."
"Sestalit" was produced by the United States Fuel Company, who published a book on it called "The Marvelous Fuel, Sestalit" in 1890. They appear to have been primarily a coal mining company, but "Sestalit" seems to have been a liquid fuel, though this is not fully established.

Left: The Gibson carbonic-acid car: 1899
A car powered by carbonic acid was developed by Charles Gibson of Jersey City, New Jersey. There is a chain or belt drive to the rear axle, the engine being installed in the rear of the body.
From The Horseless Age, May 31, 1899:
"The expansive power of carbonic acid is titanic, but two chief difficulties have stood in the way of its adoption for power purposes--the inability of inventors to control it and prevent the valves from freezing up owing to its too rapid expansion, and the high cost of the substance."
Gibson's car claimed to have eliminated the problem of freezing valves; this was clearly an endemic problem with the technology. The article thought that carbonic acid could be economically manufactured in quantity given enough demand for it.
It is not clear whether the freezing problem was caused by ice, originating from contamination with water, or if the carbon dioxide itself was freezing. This is entirely possible (and probably the more likely explanation) as solid carbon dioxide, otherwise known as dry ice, forms readily when liquid carbon dioxide is evaporated.

SIGNALLING POWERED WITH CARBONIC ACID

Left: An article on railway signals powered by carbonic acid.
An intriguing reference to carbonic acid, but with no real information at all. Was the gas piped to each signal, or carried there in bottles? Presumably it was in liquid form to increase the power storage density, otherwise they might just as well have used compressed air.
I have never heard of this system of signalling before- it cannot have made much impact.

From Model Engineer & Electrician for 26 May 1904, p489

TRAJAN VUIA'S MONOPLANE:1906
In 1906 the Romanian aeronautical experimenter Trajan Vuia was living in Paris and testing a small bat-like monoplane with a tractor propeller. The pilot sat well below the wing on a framework with a four-wheeled undercarriage. It was driven by a carbonic acid motor, of which no details have so far been found, except that it was of inadequate power. (A later monoplane was powered by 24hp Antoinette petrol engine) Some short hops from level ground were made, the longest being 24 metres. Proper flight was not realised, but the machines are considered to be the immediate ancestors of the monoplanes which appeared in Europe before World War 1.

THE CARBON DIOXIDE POWERED LIFEBOAT: 1934

Left: Carbon-dioxide powered lifeboat
My first thought was that this sounds like a frighteningly undependable means of life-saving. All those CO2 cylinders would have to be constantly checked for leaks and falls in pressure; was the ship supposed to carry around its own CO2 tanks for continuous topping-up? Having said that, modern life-rafts are often inflated by carbon dioxide or nitrogen cylinders, so perhaps it's not so daft after all. The system does not appear, however, to have ever been used for propulsion, so far as I can discover.
On the other hand, (so to speak) using manual power to compress air and keep the engine running sounds very questionable because of the high energy losses as heat when compressing a gas. The air might be hot when it entered the storage cylinder, but would soon cool down, and the heat energy would be lost.

From Popular Science for Feb 1934

The carbon-dioxide engine appears to be of the two-cylinder horizontally opposed type. One wonders if there were any provision for stopping it freezing up as the carbon-dioxide expanded; any water vapour in the CO2 would congeal and clog up everything disastrously.

CARBONIC ACID MOTORS TODAY
This sort of motor must be quite obsolete, no? No. Certainly, typing "carbonic acid motor" or "carbonic dioxide motor" into a search engine will (at the time of writing) yield nothing. The result is quite different if you use "CO2 motor". You will find that modern carbonic dioxide motors are used to power model aeroplanes. Advantages include low noise output and no flammable fuel.
A small metal reservoir is charged with either liquid or gaseous carbon dioxide under pressure. This powers a motor that looks very much like a small glowplug engine. There is a valve at the top of the cylinder usually operated by a protrusion from the crown of the piston. Exhaust is via a uniflow port uncovered by the piston at the bottom of its stroke. Fins are provided, just as on a glowplug engine, but here the purpose is not cooling but to stop the engine cooling down too much as the CO2 expands.

Left: Two CO2 motors for model aircraft.
One pipe runs from a non-return filler valve to the reservoir, and the other takes the CO2 to the engine.
Image taken from the website of Davis Diesel Development. (with permission, I might add) See link below.

CO2 motor links:
www.gasparin.cz Do not miss the historical overview in the "CO2 motors" section.
www.davisdieseldevelopment.com
www.samsmodels.demon.co.uk/gasparin.html which shows some fine CO2 engines, including a V12!