MDI’s OneCAT
Posted on 03/30/2007 7:17:49 PM PDT by Rick_Michael
A car with an air-compressed engine will be able to drive around 124 miles or eight hours for just under $2.
The OneCAT, created by Moteur Development International (MDI) Founder Guy Nègre, can reach a speed of 68 mph and can cover about 124 miles, or eight hours of travel, which is more than double the road coverage of an electric car. When recharging the tank, the car needs to connect to an outlet for three to four hours or attach to an air pump at a gas station for two minutes.
Economy and the ecological benefits are the main advantages for the client since the car´s maintenance cost is 10 times less than that of a gasoline-powered car.
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The vehicle (www.theaircar.com) gets its power from 90 cubic meters of compressed air stored in fiber tanks. The expansion of air pushes the pistons and creates movement. The atmospheric temperature re-heats the engine and increases 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 (one liter of vegetable oil) is only necessary every 31,000 miles.
At the moment, MDI has four models, a car, a taxi (five passengers), a pick-up truck, and a van. The final selling price will be $10,800 (£5,500).
MDI, founded in Luxembourg, based in the south of France, with commercial offices in Barcelona, has researched and developed the Air Car over 10 years, and the technology has more than 30 international patents.
MDI already signed with 50 factories in Europe, America, and Asia. The company is offering 20 licenses in the U.K. as exclusive manufacturing areas for cars as well as offering other licenses in the nautical and public transport sectors.
The company just signed a deal with Tata Motors in India to develop a new and cost-saving technology for applications for the Indian market.
The company is initially looking to produce 3,000 cars each year, with 70 staff working one eight-hour shift a day.
MDI developed two technologies to meet different needs. One is the single energy compressed air engines, and the other is dual energy compressed air plus fuel engines
The single energy engines will be available in Minicats and Citycats. These engines are for use in the city use, where the maximum speed is lower and the need for an environmentally safer car is greater.
The duel energy engine, on the other hand, can see use in the city, but also the open road. The engines will work exclusively with compressed air while it is running under 50 km/h in urban areas. When the car hits speeds over 50 km/h, the engines will switch to fuel mode. The engine will be able to use gasoline, gas oil, bio diesel, gas, liquidized gas, ecological fuel, and alcohol.
The engine types will be available with two, four, and six cylinders. When the air tanks are empty, the driver will be able to switch to fuel mode, thanks to the car’s on board computer.
This engine (for more information, click on www.theaircar.com/howitworks.html) has four two-stage pistons, i.e. eight compression and/or expansion chambers. They have two functions: to compress ambient air and refill the storage tanks; and to make successive expansions (reheating air with ambient thermal energy) thereby approaching isothermic expansion.
Its steering wheel is equipped with a 5kW electric moto-alternator. This motor acts as the:
No clutch is necessary. The engine is idle when the car is stationary, and the vehicle starts via the magnetic plate which re-engages the compressed air. The electric motor allows for the parking capabilities.
For related information, go to www.isa.org/manufacturing_automation.
Watch video below
I got the picture. Stay tuned. Soon we will be hearing how the powers that be have suppressed and persecuted this genius.
And what is the car going to do with all the cold "generated"? With this engine sucking up so much heat, the air conditioner will practically free to run. Could be a great car for Arizona -- or at least a replacement for some of the golf carts I see around here.
The article referencing using air at -100C is five years old. I may have missed it, but the most recent article stated that the air tanks are made of thermoplastic with carbon fiber wrapping. This is very similar to current technology in firefighter SCBAs, except I think the interior liner for firefighting air cylinders is made of aluminum. Also, on their page, they note that the cylinders are designed for use at temperatures of -40C. There's also no mention of using liquified air, and since both oxygen and nitrogen liquify at around -130F, depending on pressure, it looks like they've gone to a straight compressed air system at normal temperatures.
One thing that puzzles me is that according to the article, the tanks hold 100 liters of compressed air at 4500 psi. That only translates to 3.5 cubic feet. A one half hour carbon fiber cylinder for firefighting holds around 45 cubic feet, and weighs less than fifteen pounds. Possibly they mean the tanks have a liquid volume of 100 liters, which would probably translate to being around ten times the size of a 1/2 hour firefighting cylinder.
Is that the 2010 Suburban? ;)
If the air is pressurized to 4500 psi, this would exceed, I suspect, the capability of the standard gas station tire filling pump, which does passenger cars to around 40 psi. They'd have to get some kind of special set up, but filling the tanks in a few minutes shouldn't be an issue, if you can find a station set up for it.
Don't become a firefighter then. We have tanks at 4500 psi on our backs every time we go into a fire.
No that is not right. Nuclear power can produce the electricity cheaper and cleaner than coal.
Coal is not needed for this air powered engine.
They dont usually mention stuff like that (including for 'electric' cars).
Line loss on power lines can be as much as 90%. (From those CO2 belching fossil fuel plants that generate the electricity required) ???
Will the pumps be efficient ???
Will the release of pressure cause cryogenic temperatures that require major insulation and costly handling measures??
"can reach a speed of 68 mph and can cover about 124 miles" doesnt mean simultaneously. Higher speeds and the mileage goes down drastically. If you want to go on a normal long road trip will there be any room in the car after fitting all the tanks needed for such a trip????
Such things limit effective use.
I didn't realize this. How safe are those tanks?
Nice Post. Thanks.
:O)
P
Carbon fiber tends to split instead of exploding, but I suppose it's possible. A lot of people here are questioning the viability of the vehicle, but the compressed air at 4500 psi could probably be handled pretty easily using conventional technology and some explosion containing baffles that would direct the air flow downward.
I have no idea whether the car would be as energy efficient as advertised, but the air compression technology, from what I can tell, is pretty much off the shelf.
Busses powered by compressed air have been operating in urban areas for quite some time! In the Buckhead area of Atlanta, for instance...
The primary use of compressed air vehicles in urban areas has been to reduce air pollution....
The trick is in the insulation. You keep the gas at liquid temperature at or near atmospheric pressure by allowing a small amount of it to evaporate per unit time. How small an amount depends on the quality of your insulation.
Of course, his $2 estimate for charging the tank is entirely bogus. I suspect his 124 miles is too.
Liquified air.
Two points.
1. I don't think they are trying to hold it at high pressure. Sure, you compress the hell out of it when you liquify it, but then as long as you keep it cryogenically cool, it stays liquid at regular atmospheric pressure.
2. Need air conditioning? You got it! < }B^)
Hey, isn't that the car from "Idiocracy"?
The energy to run this car down the road must come from something external to the vehicle. If that source is electricity, and that electricity is from the public utility, then whatever the mix and proportion of sources that are feeding the grid will be called on to meed the need.
We could say the source is coal, because electricity from a grid is fungible, and slightly more than half of public power in the US comes from coal, even though the portion varies widely.
Advocates of electric vehicles can claim all day long they are clean, but they never seem to care where the power comes to recharge the storage. In the US, slightly more than half of all electricity comes from burning coal. If electric cars are sold, their users cannot control what sources and fuels their local utility will call upon to satisfy the demand they created.
Even if a local utility is all nuclear or all solar, until that non-polluting capacity is less expensive than coal, it will not cause a reduction in coal burning. It will only displace new construction. Utilities continually run least-cost models to determine what sources use and when.
But electric vehicle advocates should know, but are blissfully ignorant of, that when a family switches from a conventional vehicle to an electric one, it will roughly double the amount of electricity the utility will have to supply.
This implies that either the vehicle owner will have to get permission from the utility to draw the load every time he wants to plug his car in, or the utilities will have to almost double the number of power plants.
My objections are backed up all over this thread.
Considering that you are incapable of following basic logic, or carrying on a logical argument (I.E. changing the argument every time you are shown to be wrong), I would suggest that intellect was scarce on your first post.
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