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Air car, c&p
SWAT 50
Member Posts: 4,074 ✭✭✭
What is this?
Will it be the next big thing?
Tata Motors of India thinks so.
What will the Oil Companies do to stop it?
It is an auto engine that runs on air. That's right; air not gas or diesel or electric but just the air around us. Take a look.
Tata Motors of India has scheduled the Air Car to hit Indian streets by August 2012
The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N. For Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air to push its engine's pistons and make the car go.
The Air Car, called the "Mini CAT" could cost around 365,757 rupees in India or $8,177 US.
The Mini CAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis, a body of fiberglass that is glued not welded and powered by compressed air. A Microprocessor is used to control all electrical functions of the car. One tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, turn signals and every other electrical device on the car. Which are not many.
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.
There are no keys, just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket. According to the designers, it costs less than 50 rupees per 100 KM, that's about a tenth the cost of a car running on gas. It's mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car, a factor which makes it a perfect choice for city motorists. The car has a top speed of 105 KM per hour or 60 mph and would have a range of around 300 km or 185 miles between refuels. Refilling the car will take place at adapted gas stations with special air compressors. A fill up will only take two to three minutes and costs approximately 100 rupees and the car will be ready to go another 300 kilometers.
This car can also be filled at home with it's on board compressor. It will take 3-4 hours to refill the tank, but it can be done while you sleep.
Because there is no combustion engine, changing the 1 liter of vegetable oil is only necessary every 50,000 KM or 30,000 miles. Due to its simplicity, there is very little maintenance to be done on this car.
This Air Car almost sounds too good to be true. We'll see in August. 2012
Will it be the next big thing?
Tata Motors of India thinks so.
What will the Oil Companies do to stop it?
It is an auto engine that runs on air. That's right; air not gas or diesel or electric but just the air around us. Take a look.
Tata Motors of India has scheduled the Air Car to hit Indian streets by August 2012
The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N. For Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air to push its engine's pistons and make the car go.
The Air Car, called the "Mini CAT" could cost around 365,757 rupees in India or $8,177 US.
The Mini CAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis, a body of fiberglass that is glued not welded and powered by compressed air. A Microprocessor is used to control all electrical functions of the car. One tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, turn signals and every other electrical device on the car. Which are not many.
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.
There are no keys, just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket. According to the designers, it costs less than 50 rupees per 100 KM, that's about a tenth the cost of a car running on gas. It's mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car, a factor which makes it a perfect choice for city motorists. The car has a top speed of 105 KM per hour or 60 mph and would have a range of around 300 km or 185 miles between refuels. Refilling the car will take place at adapted gas stations with special air compressors. A fill up will only take two to three minutes and costs approximately 100 rupees and the car will be ready to go another 300 kilometers.
This car can also be filled at home with it's on board compressor. It will take 3-4 hours to refill the tank, but it can be done while you sleep.
Because there is no combustion engine, changing the 1 liter of vegetable oil is only necessary every 50,000 KM or 30,000 miles. Due to its simplicity, there is very little maintenance to be done on this car.
This Air Car almost sounds too good to be true. We'll see in August. 2012
Comments
Further, I bet they Plan for the "Driver" To be a Horse Jockey that weighs less than 100 Pounds.
Finally, I Guarantee that the Feds will hang so much "Safety" Gear and requirements on it that it will Not get out of its own Footprint when underpowered.
EDIT: Fat Fangers!
Very simply stated it takes a certain amount of energy to move a set object or vehicle a set distance. Obviously there are variables but this is a basic truth.
If we take two exactly similar cars at exactly the same time under exactly the same conditions, then we can reasonably say that exactly the same amount of energy will be required to move each from one point to another.
Just as an example let's assign a 30% efficiency rating to an internal combustion powered vehicle. (This is highly optimistic.) This means that roughly two thirds of the fuel used is wasted. Not very efficient by any standard. In reality it's likely that about 80% of the fuel we use in our vehicles is lost to inefficiency, but this really isn't my point.
What I'm getting at is that even at 20% efficiency there is a huge amount of potential energy contained in that portion of fuel we use for actual work. This same amount of energy would somehow have to be stored in compressed medium used to power an air vehicle. While possible in theory I sincerely doubt this practical given the structural and safety limitations imposed upon a personal vehicle.
As with most ideas nothing is really new here. In the era of steam locomotives there was what was sometimes referred to as the Thermos Bottle. No boiler, no fuel, and no pollution (sort of anyway) as super heated H2O was pumped into what we might consider the boiler portion of the locomotive. Resulting steam from the release of pressure into the cylinders gave these units their propulsion and the fact that water has the ability to store significant calories made these locomotives viable over short distances. SHORT DISTANCES!
I would speculate that the viability of an air-powered car could easily be calculated. Given the claim that "exhaust" gasses would exit the vehicle at well below the freezing point I'd assume a very highly compressed media would have to be the case here. And since ambient air can only be compressed just so far in a gaseous state before it becomes a liquid, it follows that we figure the potential energy value on either a gas or liquid depending upon what could be expected from the vehicle.
In the case of a gas there's a limit beyond which air cannot be compressed. Very simply how many atmospheres of pressure can be contained in a tank of some sort. Not much different than a common air tool and tank really.
If air must be compressed to liquid form there has to be a consideration for refrigeration as the media must be kept below its boiling point while in storage. Then there's the issue of an ability to compress and cool air to the point of becoming liquid. All the while we must remember that the heat dissipated during compression is energy lost to real work. This in what's advertized as a low cost efficient personal vehicle.
Sorry folks, I'm not amongst the believers. Same is true about HHO. It's just not viable.
When I was a kid there were model airplane engines that ran off a CO2 cartridge for a minute.
Now, that, I think, equates to about two million people.
Two million cars.
You plug it in at night, to allow the compressor to work.
Now, two million compressors running during the night, let's say the powerplants supplying the electricity will have to run at peak power almost the entire day.
Now, where's the energy savings? The pollution must be factored in, also.
No. It's a sham, given the big picture. Joe