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Posted on 05/08/2015 8:05:39 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
LOS ANGELES, California, May 4, 2015 (ENS) – AIRPod, a $10,000 car that runs on compressed air, has won a development deal on the American TV program “Shark Tank.”
Robert Herjavec, one of the investors, or sharks, Friday night agreed to invest US$5 million in Zero Pollution Motors, the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, developer of the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine.
In return Herjavec, a Croatian-born Canadian businessman, investor and auto racing enthusiast, will acquire 50 percent equity in Zero Pollution Motors.
Pat Boone, the famous music star from the 1950s, joined Ethan Tucker of Brattleboro, Vermont, who owns the Zero Pollution Motors rights to manufacture and sell the AIRPod in Hawaii, to pitch the new eco-friendly compressed air car to the sharks.
The AIRPod will be built in regional turnkey micro production factories throughout the United States.
Unlike the huge traditional auto assembly plants, these plants will manufacture 80 percent of the vehicles and will sell them in the same location.
This method will decrease costs and logistic problems and also has a significant beneficial impact on the environment, Tucker and Boone explained to the sharks.
Hawaii is the anticipated location of the first production plant.
Tucker told the sharks the islands are an ideal location for an AIRPod factory because it is a contained location, is overloaded with vehicles, suffers from air pollution and is dependent on weekly shipments of petrol.
Herjavec agreed to put up the $5 million, but only if ZPM is able to get the rights to manufacture and sell the AIRPod in the entire United States.
The AIRPod vehicle was developed by French inventor and environmentalist Guy Negre. The vehicle design is owned by MDI Sa based in Luxembourg.
To power the vehicle, cold air compressed in tanks to 300 times atmospheric pressure is heated and fed into the cylinders of a piston engine.
No combustion occurs, so there is no air pollution. Negre has said that the air emitted from the tailpipe is cleaner than the air that goes in, due to an internal filter.
The AIRPod can be refilled from a compressed air station, similar to those that exist today at gas stations for the inflation of tires but with larger capacity and higher pressure.
The AIRPod can be refilled with air at home using an electric compressor and Negre hopes that, one day, drivers will be able to recharge the cars in filling stations in three minutes for as little as three dollars.
Zero Pollution Motors intends to produce the first compressed air car for sale in the United States by the second half of 2015.
InternationAL. Good grief!
“The inefficiency is off the charts”
Big time. And I’m assuming the amount of energy obtained when the compressed air is put to work can’t be greater than the energy used to compress the air, which includes BOTH the energy heat energy given up when the air is compressed AND the work it took to compress the air in the first place. And then on top of all of that, when the air performs work as it is uncompressed, it draws back all of the heat it lost when compressed.
It strikes me that this scheme isn’t too much different than trying to use a refrigeration system as a propulsion system. I bet you end up with something like 80% of the total energy inputs being wasted.
And then on top of that, how much actual work can you get out of a, let’s be generous and say 100 gallon tank, at 4400psi of compressed air? Enough to accelerate a 2 ton vehicle to 75mph 2-3 times and then drive it for, what, 3-4 miles after each acceleration? Oh, and the noise of that compressed air uncompromising has to be ungodly. Anybody every hear a supersonic wind tunnel in action, where a few thousand gallons of highly compressed air are suddenly released through a small orifice?
This whole thing sounds to be less feasible than using Unicorn farts.
(BTW, I’d love for an actual engineer to provide real energy and power numbers for my above suppositions.)
KA-BOOM!
Anyone ever see an oxygen tank for oxy-acetelyine welding get the regulator broken off?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1_CQc85jrU
Perhaps the heating fuel is methane emitted from the driver via a pipe, strategically located and fed to a combustion chamber when the struggle buggy is driven on the freeway? Just asking.
300 bar is the upper end for SCUBA tanks so they may be having system parts made by dive equipment suppliers. Also might have these be able to use dive shop air compressors. Hawaii might have some of those.
Zero P website ain’t real heavy on info. They show three variations in pics including a delivery car.
Must have a deep cycle battery. Joystick to steer; three wheeler setup with a twin front wheel that looks like solid rubber forklift/ pallet jack tires from what little I could tell. If they are solid then chunks will be lost and it will ride even rougher. Maybe mower tires. Probably no spare for the back.
$11,000. Has a four hour onboard compressor; did not say to what pressure. Wiper and lights. Heat and A/C who knows? I think high side winds will be a risk. They listed 617 pounds. Fiberglass/ composite construction-— it really should have a roll-bar.
They should be able to sell some of these to congested urban areas. For large industrial sites or airports I don’t think that compressed air vehicles are a bad idea if in a more utilitarian body format.
DUDE...where you gonna put the surf board??
$10,000 Car - AirPod - That Runs On Air https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RBl1LFUQ4c
Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know - The Thorium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sG9_OplUK8
All the discussion of “explosions” is just ignorant.
The energy to compress air versus energy output is a concern.
The variation in stored, compressed air over temperature changes is a very real threat to efficiency. There is a reason they only want to do this in Hawaii....less temperature variations.
The design is clearly NOT compliant with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Once they are brought into compliance, weight will go up, efficiency and range will go down.
-it wasn't universally used however because electric locomotives -either battery or trolley powered --were generally more efficient---
Wife had one of those when we met. Fuji Heavy Industries before it became Subaru. Kind of like a miniature VW Beetle with doors that open backwards.
But it did get over 60 mpg. Sadly, there were some hills around it wouldn’t go up except, very slowly, in reverse.
Thanks for the link. Do you know of a good pro/con discussion on thorium reactors? Most all the articles I’ve seen were very obviously produced by fans.
Nothing wrong with that, but it just doesn’t help you with the balance sheet of good vs. bad.
I like the idea, esp for the city but I have my doubts. I own an Atlas Copco 90/185 air compressor. It weighs 3000lbs, eats diesel, generates a HUGE amount of heat and vibrates itself apart constantly. Turning diesel into air pressure isn’t cheap at all.
>> That thing’s got death-trap written all over it.
Yeah, it’s so gay, you could get AIDS just sitting in it.
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