Is air power the future of transportation?
11/14/2011Asmita Prasad:
Air power transportationAir power the future of transportation
Ever since the dawn of the automotive era, engineers and auto developers have been trying to find a way to make running the cars as cheap and clean as possible. Though the Oil Crisis of the 1970s, the recent economic recession, and concerns about global warming have speeded up the research and development of alternate-propulsion engines. The latest "green" engine technology to have surfaced in the recent years is the air-propelled variety. Using a piston engine which works very much like a steam engine, the air engine pushes against a piston via the pre-pressurized gas from the fuel tank bypassing the need to use petroleum to power the vehicle.
Why we are asking this now?
Manufactured by India's largest automaker Tata Motors and developed by Luxembourg-based MDI, the world's first commercial vehicle powered solely by compressed air is almost ready for a public launch. An ex-Formula One engineer Guy Negre is the brains behind the Air Car range that would be the world's cleanest car with zero emissions with a range of 125 miles and a top speed of 68 mph. With an ability to recover up to 13 percent of the power used via a pneumatic brake power recovery system, the engine in an Air Car will automatically be switched off when the car is stationary. Also, the engine emissions are actually cleaner than the air which went into the fuel tank because before it enters the engine, the air is filtered by a carbon-filter which means the air outputted by the powertrain is between -15 and 0 degrees Celsius and 100 percent air that can also be redirected back into the cabin to serve as car's air-conditioning system.
Is it really that serious?
A standard 230V mains power point will refill the tank of the City-CAT's electricity-powered air compressor unit in less than six hours while the smaller MiniCAT model would be fully recharged in less than four hours when plugged to a 230V socket. Per 100 miles traveled on the car will cost 1 which would be one of main selling points of the vehicle and drivers will be able to refill their tanks in just a few minutes with custom air compressor units installed at petrol stations. To improve the environmental credentials of their vehicles, MDI are likely to use hemp-fibre rather than fiber-glass in the construction of the vehicle with a lightweight and cheap to manufacture fiberglass and foam body being given to the City-CAT. Capable of holding 340 liters of air at 4350 psi, a carbon-fiber fuel-tank will be fitted in one of a proposed range of Air Cars called the City-CAT that will be priced at around 7,000.
What others are saying:
Inventor of the air-powered car and founder of Motor Development International (MDI), Guy Negre said:
It's unthinkable to create an ecological car that is not also economical because people are not usually prepared to spend money to be environmentally friendly.
About the Toyota Ku Rin, Integrity exports says:
This little pencil-shaped rocket (3.5m long, but just 0.8m wide) broke the speed record for compressed air-powered vehicles at the Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI) test facility at Shirosato, Ibaraki Prefecture on September 9th. That's right, 80.3 MPH running on compressed air alone.
