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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The Air Car Preps for Market

Continued from page 2

By Tyler Hamilton
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MDI says that in air-only, zero-emission mode in urban settings, the car has a range of up to 125 miles, but that drops to about 50 miles when it is driven at faster speeds up to 60 miles per hour. A full charge of air, including the electricity used to compress it, is expected to cost less than $3. In the dual-mode version, with assistance from fuel, speeds can reach 100 miles per hour, and range expands to 900 miles on less than a gallon of fuel (although the faster one goes, the shorter the range).

The idea is for the car to provide zero pollution when driven in cities, and lower emissions when driven faster, as in suburban and rural settings. "It's a little more like a hybrid," says Haydon. "The new innovation will make it more appealing to the average buyer. In terms of the carbon dioxide emissions, it will have five times less than the average vehicle."

The first CAT car to be produced is called the OneCAT, a "utilitarian" car for urban and rural driving that's specifically designed for use in overcongested cities and priced in a range ($5,100 to $7,800) within reach of consumers in a developing economy, such as India.

The ultralight bodies of the vehicles would be made of glued-together fiberglass and injected foam, and the aluminum chassis would also be glued, not welded, to simplify manufacturing.

Before production of the CAT can begin in India, likely followed later by Spain and Australia, MDI says that it must start mass production of the cars at its factory in France. A spokeswoman at MDI's marketing office in Barcelona says that this will likely happen in September 2008.

But Frost & Sullivan's Rinek believes that there's limited chance that major automakers in the United States will take the Air Car seriously. He points to the need to build an infrastructure of compressor stations and the need to comply with strict safety standards. (The Air Car cannot be fueled using the air pumps currently found at some gas stations.)

"In North America, it's basically a nonstarter," says Rinek, admitting that there are limited niche markets. "The only potential, if any, would be for an inner-city, short-commute vehicle with an ultra-greenie owner."

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Comments

  • >>> the only mid-term solution is the cellular-like electric car >>>
    Gaetano Marano on 01/16/2008 at 1:40 AM
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    .

    the zero-emissions/zero-fuel air-compressed car is a dream that (I hope) may become commercial

    to-day's electric cars are more realistic and already are commercial products, but still have a lo range

    then, the only mid-term solution could be the "cellphoneCAR":

    http://www.gaetanomarano.it/articles/033cellphoneCAR.html

    .
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • What about cold climates?
    gabrielg01 on 01/16/2008 at 2:43 AM
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    It is mentioned that this engine is using the ambient temperature to warm the air, and power the 2nd stroke. This may work well in India and other tropical countries. But how about the winters of North America?
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • Air Car engine.
    Handshake on 01/16/2008 at 3:15 AM
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    What type of engine is used for this machine? (Technology). Is a piston based engine?

    P.S.
    The idea for a “air car” is very SMART, and has some advantages (refill of the car can’t be made “at home”, the “fuel” for this car must be bougth like you buy oil for standard machines)
    Electric cars don’t have this “advantages” because electricity is something that everyone has at home.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Air Car engine.
      kearns on 01/16/2008 at 11:18 AM
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      I pondered this idea over the past few years and it seems that the normal piston engine could serve also as a compressor during regenerative braking, pumping air back into the tank.  Conventional piston engines are little more than steam engines which use a volatile liquid to expand air when it's ignited. This makes for a very nice hybrid technology.
      I love the part about getting power on the upstroke as well as the downstroke!
      Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Air Car engine.
      andraon on 05/05/2008 at 8:31 PM
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      Actually. It has the ability to be plugged in and an on board sort of "alternator" can refill the tanks in about 4 hours. There is also options for a cold weather package.
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • Right Technology, Wrong Paradigm for North America?
    wf on 01/16/2008 at 11:30 AM
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    I am not so sure that this technology is a nonstarter for today's North American car market, as the article implies. I think it may indeed be useful within a slightly different context.

    This article explores the potential for vehicles powered solely by compressed air and hybrid vehicles using compressed air supplemented by a gasoline engine. An additional area of interest, however, is whether compressed air technology is useful in a hybrid vehicle where a conventional fuel engine is the primary power source and the compressed air serves as the supplementary power source. In other words, it would be very much akin to today's hybrid cars, except that compressed air is used as the dynamic energy storage medium as opposed to electric batteries. The big benefit is potential cost savings over the gas-electric hybrid approach.

    Research has shown the value of this concept. For more information, see: http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001552.html
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Right Technology, Wrong Paradigm for North America?
      panamablaine on 05/20/2008 at 1:59 PM
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      Right technology:  I have studied and taught changing paradigms for years.  You are so right that the AIR CAR requires a major shift in North Americas paradigm.  However you must admit with the cost of OIL as it is we MUST shift something.  It is extreemly difficult to make people change or break old paradigms, but it is now time to start.  The AIR CAR is by far the best thing to be developed since electricity, and the internal combustion engine.  We MUST give it a chance.
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • Crash Unworthy
    scottaye on 01/16/2008 at 4:57 PM
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    Article fails to mention that car is very very light weight.

    Go strip 75% of the weight out your current car and you'll improve mileage, just don't expect to live through a crash.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Crash Unworthy
      Monsterboy on 01/17/2008 at 1:13 PM
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      Of course, it looks like they expect people to drive more slowly than is typical of gas-powered cards. In a place where everyone's driving one of these things, there might be the ancillary benefit of fewer/less severe accidents.
      Rate this comment: 12345
      • Re: Crash Unworthy
        mcberta2 on 01/18/2008 at 12:31 PM
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        That's why they like to start selling those cars in India. Have you ever been in any big city in India?
        The streets are always packed and the average vehicle speed is just a little faster than a bicycle/scooter.
        Rate this comment: 12345
  • Retrofitting and larger airtank
    mkogrady on 01/17/2008 at 3:05 PM
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    What would happen if you increased the air tank capacity and rigged the widget (engine) up to a flywheel to be used to generate electricity? Can this be done? By tying the solution to a solar panel for air charging, there may be a market for alternate power back up for homes or even power for rural environments.

    Spin up the flywheel - disengage the airtank - recharge with solar and repeat as needed.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Retrofitting and larger airtank
      DJTal on 01/20/2008 at 5:45 AM
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      ...add a wind turbine to the roof so it generates electricty when it moves , and if all else fails have low paid imigrant worker push the car around . simple . could this be done ????
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • Liquid Air
    dgholstein on 01/20/2008 at 11:19 AM
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    I always like to take a problem to it's logical extremes. Consider this, compress the air till we get liquid air (the compressed air in the car as is proposed would have to remain hot, retaining it's energy, to work efficiently).

    If we were to fill up with liquid air, the fill process would be little more difficult than with current liquid fuels, actually, a bit safer since there is no chance for fire or environmental pollution (consider the tanker disaster in Oakland).

    As we "run" the car, we'd pass ambient air through a heat exchanger, forcing the air through a phase transition and heating it up as much as possible with ambient conditions -- leaving cooled air in our wake. We would, in effect, be satisfying the first law of thermodynamics, to it's most fundamental implementation; we'd be propelling the car with ambient heat, reducing the temperature of the air in the wake of the car.

    As juvenile as Ayn Rand (in Atlas Shrugged) was with her, "extracting electricity from the air", in effect, we kind of can do something similar.

    Now, we just need to build a frost-less heat exchanger!
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Liquid Air
      bill michaels on 08/03/2008 at 11:33 PM
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      I agree; We at darlap have designed what we think is an elegant design combining a series of hollow disks containing liquid air with ambient air moved between them by the boundary layer factor and spinning at a rate sufficient to strip the frost. Since we have this unit free to spin, we use the reaction turbine principle for a "hero's engine".  The centrifugal force also (with the help of a pressure cap on the liquid air tank) serves as a charging pump.  We restrict the outlet of this ambient "warming" air resulting in a temperature rise adding to efficiency.  There may be something of interest to you on our website; darlap.com We have lost our funding possibilities while waiting for the IRS to approve our "not-for-profit" status.  Apparently private research foundations are quite rare, and noone seems to have a slot for cryogenic energy storage.
      bill michaels; founder/president DARLAP NFP
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • Efficiency
    zeddy08 on 01/21/2008 at 1:17 AM
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    In all these discussions on so-called "green" energy solutions, no-one talks about efficiency!
    Efficiency is the make-or-break of any energy technology.

    I see this process as an energy transport system consisting of 3 phases: Compressing the air, transporting the air, and recovering the energy.

    Air compressors are notoriously inefficient. as the article states, a lot of energy is wasted as heat.

    The air must be transported to the place where it is dispensed. Compressed air has very little energy per unit weight (c.f. fuel, for example), so therefore this part of the process must be inefficient.

    Air motors are just as inefficient as compressors (being essentially the reverse process).

    If it uses grid power to compress the air in the first place, then it simply moves the pollution to another place (the power station), and as it's inefficient, it produces more pollution than an equivalent fuel-powered car would.

    Junk.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: Efficiency
      DDHv on 07/05/2008 at 8:51 PM
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      The low efficiency of compressing and expanding air is due to using isentropic compression and expansion. Much of the energy goes into temperature change. A pure isothermal would, neglecting friction, be totally efficient - but the best so far is about 95%, and isn't practical for transportation.
      MDIs car has about half the efficiency of a PHEV or BEV (electrical part only), range is about the same, first cost is half. There aren't resource constraints. I'd like an E-volt, but for commuting 90 miles daily round trip, first cost is more critical. $20,000 would cover years of trips, more than are likely, especially if I can talk the boss into providing the electricity while I'm at work!  ;-))
      The dual fuel range extending feature is be nice also.
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • The Air Car is real, videos on at http://www.youtube.com/user/CATvolution
    catvolution on 02/25/2008 at 4:15 PM
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    Guy Negre of MDI Air Car engine that runs on compressed air. Emissions are only filtered air that's cleaner than outside air. 300 bars of pressure in carbon-fibre & kevlar air tanks. Car can travel at 110 km/hr and has a 150 km driving range. Refilling can be done by plugging in at home or at a special high-pressure air station. Dual-energy models use small amounts of bio-fuels that can extend the range to over 1400 kms. Pollution free vehicle that produces zero emissions. When the car stops at traffic lights, the engine stops so no energy is lost because there's no idling. See the videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/CATvolution or go to http://www.catvolution.com for more information.
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • Marketing the CAT cars in NA
    peaceluvr on 10/04/2008 at 6:12 PM
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    I think that marketing these cars in North America would in fact be successful. The price of gas is so outrageously high that most people cannot afford to fill their tanks on a regular basis. With the cost of filling up the tank of one of these "air cars" at approximately 2-3 dollars, I think that people would immeadietly jump on the bandwagon so to speak and buy a car. Additionally, with this new financial crisis, people will be in even more desparate financial states than before. I believe that money is a big enough motivator to get people to buy these CAT technology cars.
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • run air car on Natural Gas
    luckin on 11/20/2008 at 1:17 AM
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    Use compressed Nat Gas and you’ve got two energy sources, the high preasure energy and the flammable fuel.

    Lately it is possible to build a combustion engine with all computer controlled valves. This sort of control provides the engine the ability to burn lean like a Civic or heavy like a Corvette as well as operate as an air compressor or an air motor.

    With this new engine technology a car is able to run on air or combustible fuel (Compressed Nat Gas). The car could decompress some Nat Gas to start up and then combust the decompressed Nat Gas. Break to a stop in compressor mode while filing an air tank that you can later use to start the car rolling.

    The engine doesn't need a starter motor and the battery isn't used to start the car.
    Rate this comment: 12345
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