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Main article: Compressed air vehicle

The Air car is a technology for vehicles using the power of Compressed Air Technology (CAT), this is, uses compressed air as energy storage. Image File history File links Sustainable_development. ... Air car may refer to: Air Car, a Hovercraft. ... The air engine is an emission-free piston engine using compressed air as fuel that was invented by Guy Nègre, a French engineer. ... The Trikke is a Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) Automobiles are among the most commonly used engine powered vehicles. ... The air engine is an emission-free piston engine using compressed air. ... Energy storage is the storing of some form of energy that can be drawn upon at a later time to perform some useful operation. ...

This can be combined with hybrid gasoline/diesel or electric plant and regenerative braking. Petrol redirects here. ... This article is about the fuel. ... Regenerative braking is any technology which allows a vehicle to recapture and store part of the kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost to heat when braking. ...

Several companies are investigating and producing prototypes and other ones, including Tata Motors, are going to offer cars in the beginning of 2008 . For other uses, see Prototype (disambiguation). ...

Overview

The compressed Air car has been mentioned by Popular Mechanics and Green News as being the true car of tomorrow, with the same mileage and zero emissions as a fuel-cell car without the dangers currently associated with hydrogen. The adolescent Internet. ... A fuel cell is an electrochemical device similar to a battery, but differing from the latter in that it is designed for continuous replenishment of the reactants consumed; i. ... This article is about the chemistry of hydrogen. ...

History

Main articles: Compressed air vehicle and air engine

The air engine is an emission-free piston engine using compressed air as fuel that was invented by Guy Nègre, a French engineer. ... The air engine is an emission-free piston engine using compressed air. ...

Technology

Air cars are powered by engines, fueled by compressed air, which is stored in a tank under high pressure such as 30 MPa (4500 psi or 300 bar), following ISO 11439 ^[1]. The storage tank is likely to be made of carbon-fiber in order to reduce its weight while achieving the necessary strength. Instead of mixing fuel with air and burning it to drive pistons with hot expanding gases; air cars use the expansion of compressed air to drive their pistons. The air engine is an emission-free piston engine using compressed air. ... Compressed air is used to refer to: Pneumatics, the use of pressurized gases to do work, as used in the Air car Breathing gas, often used in scuba diving, also to inflate buoyancy devices Compressed air can also be used for cooling using a vortex tube. ... Look up Pa, PA, pa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Expansion can have several meanings, including: In physics: Expansion of space In computer hardware: an Expansion card In computer programming: In-line expansion In computer gaming: an expansion pack See also: Wikipedia:Requests for expansion This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might...

Compressed air is a heavy way of storing fuel, 300l air at 300 MPa only amounts to about 12kWh (the equivalent of 1.4 liter (0.37 gallons) of gasoline). During rupture testing, the tank cracks, but does not break up, producing no splinters or fragments. In the event of a cracked tank, it is most likely to occur within the cylinder itself. Compressed air is used to refer to: Pneumatics, the use of pressurized gases to do work, as used in the Air car Breathing gas, often used in scuba diving, also to inflate buoyancy devices Compressed air can also be used for cooling using a vortex tube. ... Look up Pa, PA, pa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The kilowatt-hour (symbol: kW·h) is a unit for measuring energy. ... Petrol redirects here. ...

While gasoline or diesel fuel tank have the same amount of energy per litre of fuel from the first to the last litre, compressed air motors rely on the pressure within the tank, which decreases as air is drawn off. Petrol redirects here. ... This article is about the fuel. ...

All four major manufacturers who are developing CAT cars have designed safety features into their containers as opposed to hydrogen's issues of damage and danger involved in high-impact crashes. Air, on its own, is also non-flammable. Though no company has yet demonstrated the effectiveness of an imploding engine (ZAP) vs a quick release (MDI) standard, and other safety designs; it is expected that large-scale production may lead specific governments to set their own standards. It was reported on Discovery's Beyond Tomorrow that on its own carbon-fiber is brittle and splits; but creates no shrapnel. In an explosion (top), force radiates away from a source. ... Discovery Channel is a cable and satellite TV channel founded by John Hendricks which is distributed by Discovery Communications. ... Beyond Tomorrow is a song from the motion picture Serpico (1973), recorded by Perry Como. ...

The range for a €3,500 is supossedly better than 200 km. The cost of a fill up is approximately $2.00 (1.5€) for 200 km. Filling the tank, using the volume transfer system in an air station, just takes 3 or 4 minutes.

Emission output

Air cars are emission-free at the 'tailpipe', but their compressed air tanks are recharged using (typically) electric compressors and the electricity for such compressors can usually in some territories come from fossil fuels via power stations, so unless the electricity comes from a renewable alternative source or nuclear plants, Air Cars will still cause emissions of Greenhouse gas. However, emissions would be relocated from city streets to remote smokestacks. Of course a solar and/or wind recharging system (including eolocompressor) can be installed in one's home or power plants, therefore eliminating the dependence of consumption of nuclear-fossil electricity. Emission standards are requirements that set specific limits to the amount of pollutants that can be released into the environment. ... Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are hydrocarbons found within the top layer of the earth’s crust. ... Renewable energy (sources) or RES capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes, and geothermal heat flows. ... Nuclear power station at Leibstadt, Switzerland. ... Top: Increasing atmospheric CO2 levels as measured in the atmosphere and ice cores. ... Heat and light from the Sun fuel life on Earth. ... An example of a wind turbine. ...

An air motor also releases air cleaner than its intake, due to the presence of an air filter to keep contaminants out of the mechanism. Consequently, this can be viewed as air purification, instead of air pollution. Air filter in an Opel Astra car, top side=clean side Air filter in an Opel Astra car, bottom side=dust side Automotive air filter clogged with dust and debris. ...

Models

Overoptimistic reports of impending production date back to at least May 1999. The Air Car made its public debut in South Africa in 2002,^[2] and was predicted to be in production "within six months" in January 2004.^[3] Various companies are investing in the research, development and deployment of Air Cars . Also see: 2002 (number). ... The phrase research and development (also R and D or R&D) has a special commercial significance apart from its conventional coupling of research and technological development. ...

Currently two companies, MDI and Energine, base the development of their projects on the principle of small cars, reducing the tare weight to the maximum. Although MDI produces MutiCAT long vehicles.

Mitsubishi

For information on Mitsubishi brand computer monitors, see NEC-Mitsubishi Electronics Display of America Inc. ...

EngineAir

Engineers from this company have made, starting from a Daewoo Matiz, a prototype of a hybrid electric/compressed-air engine (Pne-PHEV, pneumatic plug-in hybrid electric vehicle). The compressed-air engine is used to activate an alternator, which extends the autonomous operating capacity of the car. The Daewoo Matiz is a city car produced by the South Korean automaker GM Daewoo since 1998. ... A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle or gas-electric hybrid fueled vehicle is a hybrid which has additional battery capacity and the ability to be recharged from an external electrical outlet. ... Pneumatics, from the Greek πνευματικός (pneumatikos, coming from the wind) is the use of pressurized air in science and technology. ... The number of US survey respondents willing to pay $4,000 more for a plug-in hybrid car increased from 17% in 2005 to 26% in 2006. ...

EngineAir, an Australian company, is developing a rotary engine powered by compressed air.^[4][5] The Energine Corporation is a company that delivers fully-assembled cars running on a hybrid compressed air and electric engine. These cars are more precisely named pneumatic-hybrid electric vehicles.^[6] This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

A similar (but only for braking energy recovery) concept using a pneumatic accumulator in a largely hydraulic system has been developed by U.S. government research laboratories and industry, and is now being introduced for certain heavy vehicle applications such as refuse trucks.^{[citation needed]}

K'Airmobiles

K'Airmobiles has presented two running prototypes of VPA (Vehicles with Pneumatic Assistance). Their leaders now seek to gain the means of developing several projects of urban or leisure VPP (Vehicles with Pneumatic Propulsion). K'Airmobiles propose a different technology with their VPP , which may allow a reasonable range, generally with compressed air tanks of about 50L-100L/3000 psi capacity only. Psi has multiple meanings: Psi (letter) (Ψ, ψ) of the Greek alphabet Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Psi (parapsychology) Psi (instant messaging client), a popular Jabber client program J/ψ particle, a subatomic particle Wavefunction in Quantum Mechanics, ψ In mathematics, Ψ is used to denote the angle between...

These ecological vehicles use the technology of the compressed-air engine K'Air, developed in France by a small group of researchers, which thus proposes a range of projects around an idea: that of the urban or leisure compressed-air vehicles.

K'Airmobiles is the name given to a set of projects relating to "VPA" (Vehicles with Pneumatic Assistance) and "VPP" (Vehicles with Pneumatic Propulsion), aiming to escape the constraints from thermodynamics. To do so, these models are conceived like ultra light vehicles (limited to 250 kg max.), and their consumption of compressed air was calculated to remain lower than 120 L/min., although developing a dynamic push able to reach 4kN.

Two VPA prototypes are operational today, the "K'AirBike" and the K'AirKart. Two new VPP prototypes, the one-seater "K'AirTrike" and the three-seater "K'AirMobile Max" are intended for public presentation in October and November 2007 respectively.

The technical concept of the K'Air pneumatic engines returns to direct conversion of what makes the fundamental characteristic of compressed air, namely:

• the pushing force of compressed air is exclusively exploited for conversion into kinetic energy of translation,
• itself is simultaneously converted into induced power of rotation of the axis and
• thus gives to the engine a particularly imposing tork while needing only a very low “fuel” consumption.

To simplify, one can compare the principle to that of the rotary jacks:

• the energy of the fluid (compressed air) is directly transformed into rotational movement;
• the double-acting jacks involve a pinion-toothed rack system;
• the cyclic angle of rotation can vary between 90 and 360°;
• it supports hydraulic supercharging systems.

MDI

Main article: Moteur Developpement International

MDI proposes a range of vehicles developed on an identical concept, made up of MiniCATs and CityCATs. It has subscribed an agreement with Tata Motors, to produce air cars in India. MDI proposes a range of vehicles developed on an identical concept: Moteur Developpment International is a company that is famous for designing the air car. ... Moteur Developpment International is a company that is famous for designing the air car. ... Background Tata Motors Limited, formerly known as TELCO (TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company), is Indias largest passenger automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturing company. ... Moteur Developpment International is a company that is famous for designing the air car. ...

• MiniCATs is a vehicle of reduced size, proposing 3 frontal places, its autonomy in urban cycle announced is of 100 miles at a dash speed of 70m/h. The top speed is 110 km/h, with a range of 108 km. The time of recharging is 4 h. on the sector. The weight of the vehicle is 550 kg for a charge of 270 kg. The price is nearly 3,000€.It used for for local commuting. The MiniCAT's prototype was featured in the latest edition of the 'Salon Mondial de l'Automobile Paris 2002'^[7]
• CityCATs. CityCATs is envisaged under several models: a taxi (5 seats), a pick-up (2 seats) and a van (2 seats). With a power limited to 25 hp (in mono-energy), these vehicles are announced to raise an autonomy from 100 to 150 miles in urban cycle and a maximum speed of 110 km/h and a range of 240 km. The vehicle weight is approximately 900 kg.
• MultiCATs is a modular project of vehicle for transport of passengers or carriage of goods. The autonomous vehicles can constitute a train of 4 modules.It can be leased by the user.
• OneCATs is an economical car (3,500 euros) less than 500 kg to be sold in India (Tata Motors) and Europe . Mono-energy and bi-energy (hybrid air-gasoline vehicle). ^[8]

The MDI MiniCAT‎

Filling the tanks with compressed air takes 3-4 minutes; therefore, the cars will also be able to be used for longer journeys. In addition to the compressed air refuelling option, the car has a built-in air compressor that can plug into any standard outlet and refill the tanks in 4 hours. Commuters on the New York City Subway during rush hour Rush hour at Shinjuku Station, Yamanote Line Traffic jam Commuting is the process of travelling between a place of residence and a place of work. ... The Mondial de lAutomobile (Paris Motor Show in English) is a bi-annual auto show in Paris. ... For specific countries see Taxicabs around the world. ... Pickup or pick-up may refer to: Pickup, a device which detects vibrations from music instruments Pickup truck, a light truck with an open-top rear cargo area. ... This article is about a property agreement in private law. ... Background Tata Motors Limited, formerly known as TELCO (TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company), is Indias largest passenger automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturing company. ... Petrol redirects here. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

In 2002, a team of Swedish journalists from magazine Teknikens värld went to Nice to meet Guy Nègre and try out the air car. They test-drove the car and took pictures of it.^[9] The MDI MiniCAT‎ Moteur Developpement International (French: Motor Development International) is a Luxembourgian company that is famous for designing Compressed Air Engine vehicle prototypes marketed under the title the Air car. In 2002, a team of Swedish journalists from magazine Teknikens värld went to Nice to meet Guy N...

"We tested the car and it ran quite well" ( Michael Baltierra, ABC News reporter) ^[10]

They are licensed 12 factories : 5 in Mexico, 3 in Australia and New Zealand, 1 in South Africa and 3 in France. MDI Andina S.A is going to sell the car in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama. ZEVCAT is going to make MDI vehicles in the United States ^[11]

Quasiturbine

Main article: quasiturbine

The Quasiturbine is a prototype for a hybrid vehicle which, according to its originators, could as well function with an explosive fuel as with compressed air. The Quasiturbine or Qurbine engine is a proposed pistonless rotary engine using a four-sided rhomboid rotor whose sides are hinged at the vertices. ... The Quasiturbine or Qurbine engine is a proposed pistonless rotary engine using a four-sided rhomboid rotor whose sides are hinged at the vertices. ...

Tata

As of May 2007 Tata Motors of India planned to launch a MDI air car (called the People's Car) in 2008.^[12] Background Tata Motors Limited, formerly known as TELCO (TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company), is Indias largest passenger automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturing company. ... Peoples Car may refer to: Nickname of a $2,500 air car being developed by Tata Motors in India[1]. Volkswagen Category: ...

ZAP

Pictures/slides of the ZAP Motors concept were displayed at the 2007 Chicago Auto Show showing two models in testing; a two seat or a five seat hatch-back. The Zap Xebra 2007 Chicago Auto Show. ... The Jeep testdrive hill at the 2005 Chicago Auto Show The Chicago Auto Show is held annually in February at Chicagos McCormick Place convention complex. ... Renault Megane hatchback, a proper hatchback which has shown huge success in Europe Peugeot 306 hatchback, with the hatch lifted and the parcel shelf tilted for access Hatchback is a term describing an automobile design, consisting of a passenger cabin with an integrated cargo space, accessed from behind the vehicle...

See also

• Air engine
• Charging station
• Compressed air energy storage
• Compressed air vehicles
• Engine swap
• Eolo Car
• Moteur Developpement International
• Plug-in hybrid
• Pneumatics

The air engine is an emission-free piston engine using compressed air. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) refers to the compression of air during periods of low energy demand, for use in meeting periods of higher demand. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... An engine swap is the process of removing a cars engine and replacing it with another; this is done either because of failure, or to install a different engine - more powerful, maybe more up to date and maintainable. ... Eolo is the first Compressed Air Car invented by Guy Nègre and built by MDI which has licensed the patent for the construction to Eolo International (In Italy to Eolo Italia). ... Moteur Developpment International is a company that is famous for designing the air car. ... Hybrids Plus plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius conversion with PHEV-30 (30 mile or 48 km all-electric range) battery packs A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid vehicle with batteries that can be recharged by connecting a plug to an electric power source. ... Pneumatics is the use of pressurized air to effect mechanical motion. ...

External links

• Studies: Aluminum Frames, "Air Hybrids" Yield Fuel Savings (EERE).
• Compressed air vehicle group.
• K'Airmobiles - The ecologic compressed air vehicles
• K'Airmobiles - Les véhicules écologiques à air comprimé
• MDI's Air Car website
  • MDI OneCAT
  • MDI air car email group
  • CityCAT video.
  • MDI Air Car in PesWiki.
• Fan Site and Portal to the various air-car websites
• Energine, a South Korean company developing Pneumatic Hybrid Electric Car
• ZevCat Inc., A US company that would like to sell MDI Vehicles
• ZAP Auto International
• Tata Developing Air Car.
• Air Car Ready for Mass Production.
• (French) Discussion sur econologie.com:
• (English) Compressed air vehicles hystory
• (French) La voiture a air comprimé : Le dossier
• AirPoweredVehicles group

The DoE´s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) mission is to strengthen Americas energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality in public-private partnerships that: Enhance energy efficiency and productivity; Bring clean, reliable and affordable energy technologies to the marketplace; and Make a difference in the...

News articles

• Popular Mechanics on Tata's Air Car
• Tata's Air Car
• Tata's Air Car
• BBC Article
• Second BBC Article
• Korean Air Car/Electric Vehicle
• Beyond Tomorrow Episode about the Vehicle
• The Science Channel Video Report
• MSNBC article
• Videos in YouTube:
  • Short video report on YouTube
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P7cABdiw-w

YouTube is a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. ...

References

1. REDIRECT CAT
2. REDIRECT Compressed air technology