The Air Car
 

http://www.theaircar.com/

"Welcome to the future!

It´s already looking like the MDI Air Car will be one of the major technological discoveries of the new century. Inventor Guy Négre has developed a car capable of a top speed of 110 km/h, 300 kilometres on one tank of fuel and at a cost of just a penny per kilometre. All of this at "zero pollution". In fact the car cleans the air it uses!
"

Will the air powered car be the next revolution in automobile technology? Amazingly, it runs on compressed air. Its exhaust is actually air that's been filtered and cleaned so its exhaust is cleaner than the air that it uses. "This represents a true revolution in automobiles - it is the first time that a car has produced minus pollution, i.e. it elimates and reduces existing pollution rather than emitting dirt and harmful gases. The exhaust pipe on the MDI cars produces clean air" http://www.theaircar.com/tecno.html

Less carbon dioxide emissions will result in less acid rain, and healthier reefs. Ok, I'm stretching it a bit in order to make this reef related. I hope this is not a joke. It sounds too good to be true.

looks like it won't work to me.. some one has an idea but I doubt we will ever see it come full circle.

Steve

Hi Steve. Any particular reason why you don't think it will work?

Why are all these environmentally friendly car so darn ugly looking..?? :confused:

Because the only money they have went into the technology and the aesthetics come later when the big automakers adopt it or buy him out and bury it in a file somewhere :eek: :razz:

because the "IT'S AND THEYS" of the world wouldn't let that happen. Just think the government would have to start to charge tax on the air we breath because they would loose fuel revenue. :rolleyes:

I have to agree. I don't feel we'll see significant use of renewable energy sources until we run out of crude. And with Schlumberger, Suncor and friends continuing to develop new more efficient methods of extraction, the global cup remains perpetually half full.

if you really look at it the energy extracted from compressed air is very small in a expansion type engine. if you look at the old steam expansion engines they had an efficiency of about 37% and air is much less than that if I had to guess off the top my head I would guess 15%ish also the volume of compressed air required to travel 50 miles would be to large and would kill the car with the weight of the storage container.

to me it looks like some tinkerers were looking for a way to get a grant or funding so they had to throw out something that looked like it had merit to money backers

Steve

I think we should support all those who strive to find a more economical and environmental mode of transportation. I agree that not every idea is of great benefit, but it doesn't hurt to try.

What if this principle was applied to something that did have room for a mass quantity of compressed air; light rail, boat, bus, etc.?

Whether it works or not is inconsequential until a way around the oil monopoly is realized. I really don't know how that will happen. Too many people are making too much money to care.

thats why I support the hydrogen fuel cell concepts, every year they are getting smaller, more powerful and cheaper. be for to long they will be very affordable and practical in something smaller than a bus.

about "a more economical and environmental" just think for a second how are they going to compress that air. most industrial compressors are diesel, gas or very high electricity demanding. so the production of compressed air its self is not environmentally friendly.

Steve

Good point.

So why aren't more buses using the hydrogen cells yet?
I would love to see a semi with this type of power, is this in the works anywhere?

the busses are doing evaluations on them now, I think we have something like 5 here in Victoria and some in Van if I recall correctly. the problem with fuel cells was size but now is mostly weight. also another problem is a diesel engine is ~87% efficient so it is the most efficient way there is, aside from a gas turbine :mrgreen:

also for the power required for the big rigs it isn't a reality yet for fuel cells. but Cars are available and busses are in trials so its moving on.

Steve

i haven't looked into it since 2001 when I was in 1st year engineering, but I know NYC was looking into hydrogen powered buses a few years back (2001) i wonder what they made of it...they were striving to have the cleanest buses running..

http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/facts/ffenvironment.htm

and the stats!

The New York City Transit network helps keep cars off the road. Without it, our air would be fouled each year by:

* 22 million pounds of hydrocarbons (causes coughing and chest pains)
* 1.18 million pounds of soot and particulate matter (damages human lung tissue)
* 15 million pounds of nitrogen oxide (causes acid rain and breathing disorders and leads to ozone damage)
* 376 million pounds of carbon monoxide (limits the blood's ability to transport oxygen to body tissue, resulting in headaches, impaired coordination, and death)

Pretty poor stats... nothing to compare those figures to. A marketer's dream.

19 out of 20 people agree 85% of the time, with a margin of error +- 20%.