The Car That Runs On Air

[Richard]

I ran across this news story and thought it was interesting. They have invented cars the run on compressed air. The cars will be for sale next year. I don’t think the oil companies will like this. icon_anmachen

The Car That Runs On Air

 

[Lion]

richard,

yes this is an awesome device, many more devices are around too that are going to surface, the reason? coz illum have nearly bled the oil fields dry and have kept it in storage to use for hundreds of years to come (if they last that long).

also dont forget, petroleum is only a small piece of the oil, nearly 90% or so of household items are based on oil.  everything that is plastic...all from oil.

take care

[Richard]

The idea is so simple that it makes me wonder why it hasn’t been thought of before. The idea of using compressed air is brilliant. This could totally change the world.

[Richard]

Here’s another story and video about the air car. They also have one on the water car.

Are governments genuinely worried about the environment? Well, subsidize further research into the air car and motors running on air then! Help develop the technology and start funding the build up of factories. C’mon – the technology to replace an oil based energy/economy is here! We have engines running on air & water - we also have “Solarpaint” (solar cells in nano size) and cold fusion. Is Al Gore genuinely worried about the environment? Why doesn’t he talk about these and other solutions?

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=678

http://www.theaircar.com/

[Richard]

Air-Car Is Ready for Launch
 
By Kanquona Bhattacharjee  

The Indian car giant Tata Motors is ready to go for mass production of world's first commercial compressed air-powered vehicle designed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre and developed by Moteur Developpment International, his foundation.

With its launch, India will not get a cost effective car but it will also free air pollution as well as will be able to solve the fuel problem.

The technology behind the air-car is not new and it had been around for years. It uses compressed air as an alternative fuel to push the piston. The manufacturer is expecting to roll out at least 6,000 cars by the end of 2008.

Mainly two technologies have been modified to meet up needs: single energy compressed air engines and dual energy compressed air plus fuel engine. In Minicats and Citycats models, the single energy engines will be available while the dual engine will be available with all MDI vehicles.

Both engines will be available with 2, 4, and 6 cylinders. The engine will be equipped to use gasoline, gas oil, bio diesel, gas, liquidized gas, ecological fuel, alcohol and more. Minicat will be projected as urban vehicle while Citycat is meant for long distance utility vehicle. And the most encouraging fact is that it will not cut consumers' pockets by more than 0.75 Euro per 100 km. Instead of the usual speedometer and RPM, the cars will have an onboard computer which will flash the car's information in front of the drive. The seat belt is also different compared to other cars and has been claimed as more secure than ever.

The recharging will be of much convenience and wallet friendly. The quickest way to refill is to go to any petrol station and to refuel it in 2-3 minutes by spending just 1.5 Euros. Alternately the fuel tank is mainly refueled by plugging the car into a socket to feed the motor alternator which compresses the air with the motor-compressor. The average estimated time for refilling has been calculated as 4 hours.

Though the car is mainly aimed at the green market, but there is doubt if it will really reduce the emission and air pollution overall. In India, fossil fuels are mainly burnt to produce electricity. Still, as the car will only emit pure air, common street air pollution is bound to decrease with its advent in the market.

Unfortunately northern America may not experience the air-car but Germany, Israel and South Africa along with 12 more countries will soon be able to test drive the car. MDI, the developer of the car is also not sitting idle while the car readies for the launch. They are already working on the dual engine hybrid version to make it a reality soon.

You will get more information by visiting the AirCar website or http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/315

More resources

http://www.theaircar.com 

[Richard]

The Air Car Update

Received from Darren-George Walker  

This car is in production!

Sales are in 12 countries. But, according to Popular Mechanics, the USA will most likely not see these cars. Hmmm. Big Oil, you think?

March 19, 2007 Many respected compressed air car to marketengineers have been trying for years to bring a , believing strongly that compressed air can power a viable "zero pollution" car. Now the first commercial compressed air car is on the verge of production and beginning to attract a lot of attention, and with a recently signed partnership with Tata , India ' s largest automotive manufacturer, the prospects of very cost-effective mass production are now a distinct possibility. The MiniC.A.T is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued not welded and a body of fibreglass. The heart of the electronic and communication system on the car is a computer offering an array of information reports that extends well beyond the speed of the vehicle, and is built to integrate with external systems and almost anything you could dream of, starting with voice recognition, internet connectivity, GSM telephone connectivity, a GPS guidance system, fleet management systems, emergency systems, and of course every form of digital entertainment. The engine is fascinating, as is and the revolutionary electrical system that uses just one cable and so is the vehicle ' s wireless control system. Microcontrollers are used in every device in the car, so one tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, indicators etc

There are no keys , just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket.

Most importantly, it is incredibly cost-efficient to run according to the designers, it costs less than one Euro per 100Km (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving), a factor which makes a perfect choice in cities where the 80% of motorists drive at less than 60Km. The car has a top speed of 68 mph.

Refilling the car will, once the market develops, take place at adapted petrol stations to administer compressed air. In two or three minutes, and at a cost of approximately 1.5 Euros, the car will be ready to go another 200-300 kilometres.

As a viable alternative, the car carries a small compressor which can be connected to the mains (220V or 380V) and refill the tank in 3-4 hours.

Due to the absence of combustion and, consequently, of residues, changing the oil (1 litre of vegetable oil) is necessary only every 50,000 Km.

The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0 - 15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.

How does it work?
90m3 of compressed air is stored in fibre tanks. The expansion of this air pushes the pistons and creates movement. The atmospheric temperature is used to re-heat the engine and increase the road coverage. The air conditioning system makes use of the expelled cold air. Due to the absence of combustion and the fact there is no pollution, the oil change is only necessary every 31.000 miles.

At the moment, four models have been made: a car, a taxi (5 passengers), a Pick-Up truck and a van. The final selling price will be approximately 5.500 pounds.

The Company
"Moteur Development International" (MDI) is a company founded in Luxembourg , based in the south of France and with its Commercial Office in Barcelona . MDI has researched and developed the Air Car over 10 years and the technology is protected by more than 30 International patents and MDI is actively seeking licensees, with according to the company, 50 factories in Europe , America and Asiasigned already.

The Factor
It is predicted that the factory will produce 3.000 cars each year, with 70 staff working only one 8-hour shift a day. If there were 3 shifts some 9.000 cars could be produced a year.

The Tata Agreement
Tata Motors is India's largest automobile company, with revenues of US$ 5.5 billion in 2005-06. With over 4 million Tata vehicles on Indian roads, it is the leader in commercial vehicles and the second largest in passenger vehicles. It is also the world's fifth largest medium and heavy truck manufacturer and the second largest heavy bus manufacturer.

Tata has signed an agreement with MDI for application in India of MDI ' s engine technology, and believes the engine is viable ; its press statement described it as an efficient, cost-effective, scalable, and capable of other applications such as power generation.

The agreement between Tata Motors and MDI envisages Tata supporting further development and refinement of the technology, and its application and licensing for India .

MDI is a small, family-controlled company located at Carros, near Nice ( Southern France ) where Guy and Cyril Negre and their technical team have developed the engine technology and the technologically advanced car it powers.

Article received from Darren-George Walker.

Related: Worried about the environment? Solutions: The Air Car & Water Car
Portable Refinery Makes Fuel from Food Scraps and Trash
Magnetic energy? Perhaps
South African Solar Research Eclipses Rest of the World
theaircar.com 

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=1375

[GertrudaRose]

My family has laughed at me for years because I keep saying I want a car covered in windmills and solar panels! Just think of all the energy from all those little whirligigs!

[crystalsun]

Technology is moving at such a pace now, it's virtually impossible to keep up with all the new ideas.

I have been sending the links to the new technologies to as many friends as I can so that nothing can be buried any more, it's all out there to be seen by everyone.

Well done gang, keep looking and posting.

[Richard]

I’m disappointed to see the air car won’t be for sale is the US. It will be interesting to see how long that lasts. It seems like public outcry will force the government to change it’s position.

[Richard]

Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 at Sub-$18,000, Could Hit 1000-Mile Range

By Matt Sullivan
Published on: February 22, 2008

The Air Car caused a huge stir when we reported last year that Tata Motors would begin producing it in India. Now the little gas-free ride that could is headed Stateside in a big-time way.

Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com on Thursday that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year.

And while ZPM is also licensed to build MDI’s two-seater OneCAT economy model (the one headed for India) and three-seat MiniCAT (like a SmartForTwo without the gas), the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent, six-seat modified version of MDI’s CityCAT (pictured above) that, thanks to an even more radical engine, is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph with each tiny fill-up.

We’ll believe that when we drive it, but MDI’s new dual-energy engine—currently being installed in models at MDI facilities overseas—is still pretty damn cool in concept. After using compressed air fed from the same Airbus-built tanks in earlier models to run its pistons, the next-gen Air Car has a supplemental energy source to kick in north of 35 mph, ZPM says. A custom heating chamber heats the air in a process officials refused to elaborate upon, though they insisted it would increase volume and thus the car’s range and speed.

“I want to stress that these are estimates, and that we’ll know soon more precisely from our engineers,” ZPM spokesman Kevin Haydon told PM, “but a vehicle with one tank of air and, say, 8 gal. of either conventional petrol, ethanol or biofuel could hit between 800 and 1000 miles.”

Those figures would make the Air Car, along with Aptera’s Typ-1 and Tesla’s Roadster, a favorite among early entrants for the Automotive X Prize, for which MDI and ZPM have already signed up. But with the family-size, four-door CityCAT undergoing standard safety tests in Europe, then side-impact tests once it arrives in the States, could it be the first 100-mpg, nonelectric car you can actually buy.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automoti...?series=19