Posted on 02/21/2008 6:16:23 AM PST by ZGuy
A car that runs on air and releases no pollutants into the atmosphere at low speeds could be on sale in India as soon as this year.
The three-seat fibreglass OneCAT weighs only 350kg (770lb) and is expected to be priced at about £2,500. The engine technology is backed by Tata, the Indian conglomerate that last month unveiled the world’s cheapest car, the £1,250 Nano.
Refuelling involves topping up on compressed air, which is used to power the OneCAT’s piston engine. In a couple of minutes - and at a cost of as little as £1 - the vehicle is ready to travel another 200 to 300 kilometres (125 to 185 miles), its inventors said.
The vehicle, which burns small amounts of conventional fuels at higher speeds, has been developed by Moteur Development International (MDI), a French-based, family owned group that has been working on an “air car” for the past decade. “The engine is efficient, cost-effective, scalable and capable of other applications, like power generation,” a spokesman said.
Vivek Chattopadhyaya, of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, said: “What counts is how much energy all the processes involved require - from manufacturing the car to compressing the air.”
Mass production moved a step closer last year when MDI agreed a partnership with Tata, under which the companies pledged to refine the technology. The Indian group said that the system may represent “the ultimate environ-ment-friendly engine” and is studying its commercial feasibility.
MDI, whose engine is competing with rival technologies that range from electric vehicles and biofuels to hybrid engines and hydrogen-based fuel cells, has said that its first mass-market model could go on sale this year.
Worldwide sales of “zero emission” cars are languishing in the thousands, but with oil prices running at record levels, energy efficiency has become a watchword across the car industry.
According to MDI, its fleet includes cars that could cover 100 kilometres for about 60p. A full tank of compressed air would last for up to ten hours. A top speed of about 70 miles an hour has been claimed. An oil change should be necessary only every 30,000 miles or more and the air expelled from the engine will be clean and cold and can be used in the air conditioning unit.
Vital statistics
Fuel: Compressed air (some conventional fuel at higher speeds)
Cost of refuelling: about £1
Range: 200km to 300km (a full tank should last up to ten hours)
Servicing: OIl change about every 30,000 miles
Seats: Three
Weight: 350kg
Price: about £2,500
they don’t want INDIVIDUALS to control automobiles or more accuratly OWN automobiles.
Otherwise autonavigation, with our aging population, would be more aggressivly pursued.
Instead politicians are pushing light rail nobody uses.
Color me skeptical.
It takes a LOT of energy to compress air. A 15A circuit, for example, will only power a rather small compressor capable of running only small air-powered tools.
There is also the inherent energy loss involved in first compressing with electricity or an IC engine and then using the compressed air to drive the car, as opposed to just using the electricity or IC engine to power the vehicle.
Yup, and you recharge it with a bicycle pump....
For God’s sake, how ignorant of an article. Every four or five years compressed air as a “fuel” comes up. Forget about the high pressure storage needed, forget about the cost of pressurizing the car. All we are talking about is running a compressor on expensive electricity to charge a canister with compressed air.
This makes me wonder if my idea when I was 8 years old of just putting a big fan outside the window of the car I was in and letting the force of the wind from the traveling car create enough power to run the car..........
you write: I own shares in a compressed air mine, so this will work out well for me.
Good chuckle for me this AM.
“try a car that runs on air”
What’s the big deal. When Congress is in session we have a country that runs on hot air!!
Light rail, which in St. Louis involves going from where nobody lives to where nobody works, makes union jobs.
What about the cartel problems that already exist? Hyperventilating liberals have cornered the market on hot air............
there are more down sides to this....
4000 psi...which is what powers this thing is a bit high pressured....and an accident will ruptured the tank sending shrapnel flying at high velocities....also you wont be able to fill you tank with your typical Home Depot compressor either.
Finally, a car for the Amish.
huh?
huh?
But with government, big auto manufacturers and big oil working together to hide the truth we are all paying the price today. With oil hovering at $ 100 per barrel we are fueling rabid Arab terrorism ourselves.
This guy has a secret -- that boosts his 6 cylinder Mercury's gas mileage from 28 to 44 mpg:
I know what it is and plan to install similar units out here in the woods:
This is silly... It doesn’t matter how efficient there little air motor is, hell electric motors used in cars are > 90% efficient...
The problem is, just as in electric and hydrogen, compressed air is NOT a source of energy. And that as in the case with the other two, it takes more energy to make it than than you can get back out of it.
In the case of compressed air, it gets hot when you compress it, and all that heat is waisted energy.
So, we end up spending more to get less.
This is not a new idea, or a particularly good one either... They have had toy car and planes that ran on compressed gas for 50 years.
“I own shares in a compressed air mine, so this will work out well for me.”
Oh, yeah. Well, I’ve got a giant rubber band mine, so I’ve got Tata’s next big idea covered.
ie: going back to living in caves and eating bugs & berries.
Instead of a compressed air scooter, why not ox drawn carts?
Oh ... sorry. I forgot about PETA.
Can you hear me now? LOL
I hear the demand for those things is pretty elastic.
I heart her tatas, too! ;-P
Oh great now they are talking about fart mobiles... I mean there sure is no shortage of Farts in the world. I see something big on the horizon. Well when they sell the cars they can sell gas masks with them to. LOL
You’re right. A 4000 psi tank is a bomb. Yes, diving cylinders are charged to about the same pressure, but divers aren’t likely to get rammed by any multi ton objects (unless they’ve really pissed off a great white with, err, sea rage :P ). Also, the energy required to compress a gas to 4000 psi is huge. The greenies would probably be begging for gas powered cars when they saw the large scale energy imprint of their air-powered ones.
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