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
The Pinto of the 21st century : )
Mr Negre says a tank-full of air - on which a car can travel up to 200km (120 miles) at a speed of about 90km/h - is equivalent to two litres of petrol.
Hmm, anyone know the work necessary to compress air (let's just say standard temperature and pressure) to 4500 PSI at -100 C?
That amount of work is the *maximum* work available to be converted to kinetic energy.
And petrol has (if I'm quoting P.J. O'Rourke right) 31,250 kcal / gallon.
Can 2 liters of petrol take a car 120 miles at roughly 60 mph? That's two hours at highway speed, for 1/2 gallon.
I don't think even a Prius can manage that--unless you are coasting downhill.
Something doesn't seem to add up.
Cheers!
"Here's an idea - screw the liberals and go drill in Alaska and the Florida Coast and all the other places that we're not supposed to, and build more refineries and develop our own oil resources instead."
It would be nice to do this or perhaps even develop a way to use the oil, but for some reason I'd like to keep my eyes open on the other alternatives. This may not be at all viable, but it just sparks my interest when a big company latches on to the idea....but then again, they're known to make mistakes, too.
I'd much prefer algae fuel to domestic oil production...for many reasons. 1)Unless it's oil shale, production levels will not keep up with demand so we'll have to depend on countries e.g Mexico, Russia, and the middle east 2)Algae fuel WHEN cost effective will help third world nation without oil really start the ball rolling....giving us more trade partners. 3)We don't have to have a continual trade deficit (as production could increase incredibly with LOW COST)...while trade deficits are not bad for short-term, they're definitely not a good long-term policy.
Refer to message 50 concerning Algae, which I know quite a bit more about....it will take time (before costs are comparable), but we do have pay attention to certain things. I'm believe alternatives will start really taking a bit out of petro markets in 10-20 years.
"Oh, I agree with you. Especially with your point about the ethanol. But liberal luddites, specifically in Consumer Reports AND the legal profession will try and hype up (or is that down?) this "strange, new" technology."
I don't mean to act liberal in any way...I'm just presenting something that may or may not work; and I believe I've not represented it as THE SOLUTION. It may be nothing at all.
I just tend to think many conservatives are too centered on petro, and at one point they do have to judge the alternatives. When there truely is a commercially viable technology, and it's proven through sales and time...I hope the conservatives get on the bandwagon quickly.
Frankly I think algae fuel will be the future, along with advancements in forms of 'solar power'. But I think it will take 10-20 years before we see something competitive.
Refer to message 50 for Algae fuel.
As far as solar....
http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/renewables/solar.asp
More concentrated solar power plants will be built in the Southwest, providing clean electricity for millions of homes and businesses around the region. According to Sandia National Labs, costs are predicted to fall to about 5 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2020, a price competitive with new coal- or gas-fired power plants.
I'll bet they aren't fiberglass tanks.
I wondered if anybody out there was old and seasoned enough to pick up on my baited breath trollings... very good!!!
How gratifying, indeed! I say, ol chop, would you like a spot of tea??? (Geeze, I ain't even British!)
Even that ol "Dog Gone" dude down there in Houston that calls me "Yosemite Sam" ain't old enough to remember "The Thing!"
"The Thing!"
I rememember it and I think i'm older than you are.
You're right. I've seen some references to The Thing over the years, but it was before my time.
However, Yosemite Sam wasn't!
At least I know you remember some of CA's most golden years. Too many hangin around here now just don't have the guts to believe the conservative movement can revive it'self in CA. How sad!!!
I'm surprised you even lurk around this site anymore with all the moderate crappola that's comin a creepin around like poison ivy!!!
We wuz too po! We din't have that pot to smoke, nor to pee in, nor a winder ta throw it outa!!!
Lemme tell ya sonny... We had ta walk ta school thru 12 foot snow drifts and it was up hill both to and frum our one room school with a coal stove!!! We had to bring all the coal from our Christmas stockings just ta keep warm!!!
You kids nowa days don't hafta do nuthin ta keep warm!!!
They're carbon fiber, very similar to what the company is using in their cars.
Sure wish we'd been as rich as you were Spanky. Sure miss that old dog too
The engine is currently in use in specialized applications and future technology will give us choices in cars and fuels. It's science...it's not a greenie communist plot to raise taxes and force everyone to drive an econobox.
Such is life, right??? (is there really 66 verses in John? I'll hafta go look!)(we din't burn our bibles)
bookmark ping , & THANKS Rick_Michael
Yes, they said you could refill from a gas station's compressed air source. But they didn't say you wouldn't also be using the car's own battery or a plug-in at the gas station to run the air-motor in compressor mode.
Just sucking in ambient air and compressing it within the car takes 3-4 hours, but it takes 2 minutes if the air you are starting out with is already at 120psi. Because it requires less compression and cooling than ambient air would, that seems possible.
The car has a 5kw (7hp) electric motor to drive the air-motor as a compressor. If it can really fill the tank from 120psi to 4500psi in two minutes, it would only be using 160wh of electricity -- an amount easily drawn from an average-sized car battery.
1) What is the effective range of a forklift compared to the average US commuter automobile? Supply chain optimization includes shortest path picklists; sightseeing doesn't.
2) Ditto for top speed and acceleration.
3) Typically one can have more than one forklift, and not all warehouses are open 24x7, allowing sufficient time to recharge. But an average home with 2 cars just might have 2 different places to go in the evening, so "juggling" the cars to allow charging still might not work.
Cheers!
Electricity to charge the car is cheap enough. At 10 cents per kwh, an electric vehicle 5-passenger sedan would cost only 2 cents per mile in electricity.
The problem is the 'consumables cost' as long as batteries have relatively short numbers of recharge cycles. An electric vehicle using 50kwh of A123 cells would need its battery pack replaced at 200K miles, at a current cost of $30K. So that 'consumables cost' is 15 cents per mile (even if electricity were free). Total cost equivalent to $5.00 gallon gasoline if the comparable ICE vehicle got 30mpg. If that 50kwh battery pack was only $10K, the total cost would be equivalent to $2.00 gasoline.
[50 factories? Does any other car use 50 factories? Have you ever heard of economy of scale? Nobody would use 50 factories.]
You can't be serious ? Most car companies use hundreds of factories to produce the parts for a car, and a few final assembly plants. Did you think all of the thousands of parts that go into a vehicle are made in one factory ?
ROTFLMAO
Guess it's time to buy some Tata's...
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