A Compressed air car is a car that uses a motor powered by compressed air. OneCAT is an upcoming Compressed air car. India 's Tata Motors is collaborating with Air engine developer Guy Nègre of MDI to produce This can also be combined (as in a hybrid electric vehicle) with gasoline/diesel/ethanol or electric plant and regenerative braking. Diesel or Diesel fuel (ˈdiːzəl in general is any Fuel used in Diesel engines The most common is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum A regenerative brake is a mechanism that reduces Vehicle speed by converting some of its Kinetic energy into another useful form of energy

Several companies are investigating and producing prototypes and other ones, including Tata Motors. A prototype is an original type form or instance of something serving as a typical example basis or standard for other things of the same category Tata Motors Limited', formerly known as TELCO (TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Mumbai "The first cars are promoted as to be available on the market in summer 2008 (promotions which were preceded by similar promotions in earlier years)"^[1]

Contents 1 Overview 2 History 3 Technology 3.1 Engines 3.2 Storage Tanks 4 Emission output 5 Advantages 6 Disadvantages 7 Models 7.1 The AirCar 7.2 Energine 7.3 EngineAir 7.4 K'Airmobiles 7.5 MDI and Tata Motors 7.6 Psycho-Active 7.7 Quasiturbine 7.8 Tata 7.9 Electro-Tech Enterprises 8 See also 9 References

Overview

The compressed air car has been mentioned by Popular Mechanics and Green News as being the true car of tomorrow, with similar range and zero emissions to an electric vehicle or fuel-cell car. Popular Mechanics is an American magazine devoted to Science and Technology. The Electric Vehicle was an American Automobile manufactured only in 1899 A fuel cell is an electrochemical conversion device It produces electricity from Fuel (on the Anode side and an oxidant (on the It claims to offer zero emissions at the tailpipe without batteries or hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen (ˈhaɪdrədʒən is the Chemical element with Atomic number 1

History

Main articles: Compressed air vehicle and air engine

Technology

Engines

Main article: Compressed air engine

One can buy the vehicle with the engine or buy an engine to be installed in a vehicle. A compressed air vehicle is powered by an Air engine, using Compressed air, which is stored in a tank A Compressed air engine is a Pneumatic actuator that creates useful work by expanding Compressed air. A Compressed air engine is a Pneumatic actuator that creates useful work by expanding Compressed air.

Compressed 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. A Compressed air engine is a Pneumatic actuator that creates useful work by expanding Compressed air. Compressed air A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical Compressed Natural Gas (CNG is a Fossil fuel substitute for Gasoline (petrol Diesel, or Propane Fuel. ^[2] 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; compressed air cars use the expansion of compressed air to drive their pistons. The idea is not new. It has been used since 1930s in cars and in Formula 1 as a start-up engine, as well as for propulsion of torpedoes. While gasoline or diesel fuel tanks 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. Diesel or Diesel fuel (ˈdiːzəl in general is any Fuel used in Diesel engines The most common is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum The air flows through a pressure regulator before going to the engine, no reduction in power would be noticed until the tank was nearly exhausted. This is the case for electric vehicles too. This process of pressure regulation will reduce the energy available due to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The second law of Thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing Entropy, stating that the entropy of an Isolated system which

Storage Tanks

Main article: Compressed air tank

Compressed air is a heavy way of storing fuel, 300l air at 30 MPa (300 Bar) about 16 kWh ^[3] (the equivalent of 1. Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES refers to the compression of air to be used later as energy source Compressed air 7 liters ^[4](0. 44 gallons) of gasoline, assuming a 100% efficiency of the engine). During rupture testing, the tank cracks, but does not break up, producing no splinters or fragments.

All four major manufacturers who are developing air cars have designed safety features into their containers contrary 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. Implosion is a process in which objects are destroyed by collapsing in on themselves It was reported on Discovery's Beyond Tomorrow that on its own carbon-fiber is brittle and splits, but creates no shrapnel. Discovery Channel is an American Satellite and Cable TV channel (also delivered via IPTV, Terrestrial television and

Emission output

Compressed air cars are emission-free at the 'tailpipe', but the energy, usually electric, required to recharge the compressed air tanks may come from the combustion of fossil fuels. 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 fossil source Fuels that is Hydrocarbons found within the top layer of the Earth’s crust. Unless all of the energy comes from non-fossil sources, like nuclear power, biomass, wind power, solar power, or hydroelectricity, compressed air cars will still cause net emissions of greenhouse gas, proportional to the ratio of energy produced via fossil fuels. Nuclear power is any Nuclear technology designed to extract usable Energy from atomic nuclei via controlled Nuclear reactions Bioenergy is Renewable energy made available from materials derived from biological sources Wind Power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form such as electricity using Wind turbines At the end of 2007 worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was Solar energy is the Light and radiant heat from the Sun that powers Earth 's Climate and Weather and sustains Life Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by Hydropower, ie the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling water Greenhouse gases are gaseous constituents of the atmosphere bothnatural and anthropogenic that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared However, emissions would be relocated from city streets to remote smokestacks. CO₂ can potentially be sequestered from large plants but not from individual vehicles. Carbon capture and storage ( CCS) is an approach to mitigating Global warming based on capturing Carbon dioxide (CO2 from large Of course a solar and/or wind recharging system can be installed in one's home, in the car or power plants, thereby eliminating the dependence of consumption of nuclear-fossil electricity. Solar energy is the Light and radiant heat from the Sun that powers Earth 's Climate and Weather and sustains Life Wind Power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form such as electricity using Wind turbines At the end of 2007 worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was When energy from biomass is used as the energy source with CO₂ removal, neutral emissions of CO₂ would -- in theory -- be the result. The same is true of traditional IC vehicles run on biofuels.

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. An air filter is a device which removes solid Particulates such as Dust, Pollen, Mold, and bacteria from Air. Consequently, this can be viewed as air purification, instead of air pollution.

Advantages

The principal advantages of an air powered vehicle are:^[5]

• Much like electrical vehicles, air powered vehicles would ultimately be powered through the electrical grid. That makes it easier to focus on reducing pollution from one source, as opposed to the millions of vehicles on the road.
• Compressed air engine reduces the cost of vehicle production by about 20%, because there is no need to build a cooling system, fuel tank, spark plugs or silencers.
• Most compressed air engines do not need a transmission, just a flow control.
• Transportation of the fuel would not be required due to drawing power off the electrical grid. This presents significant cost benefits. Pollution created during fuel transportation would be eliminated.
• Very low self-discharge rate (most batteries will deplete their charge without external load at a rate determined by the chemistry, design, and size, while compressed gas storage will have an extremely low leakage rate)
• Long storage lifetime device (electric vehicle batteries have a limited useful number of cycles, and sometimes a limited calendar lifetime, irrespective of use). Self-discharge is a phenomenon in batteries in which internal chemical reactions reduce the stored charge of the battery without any connection between the electrodes This means that batteries in operation are much more expensive than compressed air storage, and are more polluting because a lot more pollutant material needs to be used (typical car batteries are made from sulfuric acids and lead). Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES refers to the compression of air to be used later as energy source
• Lower initial cost than battery electric vehicles when mass produced. Mass production (also called flow production, repetitive flow production, series production, or serial production) is the production of One estimate is €3,000 less.
• Compressed air not subject to fuel tax at present (one taxing method would apply also to electric cars by taxing the electricity used for compression or charging). A fuel tax (also known as a petrol tax, gasoline tax, gas tax or fuel duty) is a Sales tax imposed on the sale of Fuel. An electric car is a type of alternative fuel Car that utilizes Electric motors and Motor controllers instead of an Internal combustion engine
• Expansion of the compressed air reduces its temperature and heat from the passenger compartment may be cooled using a heat exchanger, providing both relief from hot weather by air conditioning and increased efficiency. A heat exchanger is a device built for efficient Heat transfer from one medium to another whether the media are separated by a solid wall so that they never mix or the media The term air conditioning refers to the cooling and dehumidification of indoor air for Thermal comfort.
• Zero pollutant emissions from the vehicle itself.
• Compressed air is not a fire hazard, only a rapid depressurization hazard (this can be mitigated by using carbon fiber tanks).
• Air turbine technology, closely related to steam turbine technology, is a practice over 50 years old. It is simple to achieve with low tech materials. This would mean that developing countries, and rapidly growing countries like China and India, could easily implement a less polluting means of personal transportation than an internal combustion engine automobile.
• Possibility to refill air tank at home (using domestic power socket). ^[6]
• Lighter vehicles would mean less abuse on roads. Resulting in longer lasting roads.
• The price of fueling air powered vehicles will be significantly cheaper than current fuels.

Disadvantages

Having solved most of the high pressure storage and handling problems, the main remaining disadvantages are related to the thermodynamics. In Physics, thermodynamics (from the Greek θερμη therme meaning " Heat " and δυναμις dynamis meaning " ^[7]

• When the air is expanded in the engine, it will cool down via adiabatic cooling and lose pressure thus its ability to do work at colder temperatures. It is difficult to maintain or restore the air temperature by simply using a heat exchanger with ambient heat at the high flow rates used in a vehicle, thus the ideal isothermic energy capacity of the tank will not be realised. Cold temperatures will also encourage the engine to ice up.
• Compressed air vehicles likely will be less robust than typical vehicles of today. Which poses a danger to users of compressed air vehicles sharing the road with larger, heavier and more rigid vehicles.
• Using energy to compress air is less efficient than charging a battery with that same energy^[8][9] - compressed-air car's overall efficiency is approximately one third of a comparable electric car. ^[10][11][12]
• The major problem of all compressed air or liquified air cars is the lack of torque provided by the compressed gas and the high cost to compress the gas. This was shown to be the case starting in 1903 with the Liquified Air Company car of London England ^[13]
• Long refill time when refilled using a home or low-end system (circa 4 hours). However, at a commercial station refilling would take only a few minutes. ^[14] But for that, fueling stations would have to invest in new dispensers.
• Governments would either lose tax income or have to adapt their taxation strategies.

Models

Various companies are investing in the research, development and deployment of Compressed air cars. The phrase research and development (also R and D or more often R&D) according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers Overoptimistic reports of impending production date back to at least May 1999. For instance, the MDI Air Car made its public debut in South Africa in 2002,^[15] and was predicted to be in production "within six months" in January 2004. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ^[16] Most of the cars under development also rely on using similar technology to Low-energy vehicles in order to increase the range and performance of their cars. A Low-energy vehicle is any type of vehicle that uses less energy than a regular Petroleum fuel vehicle

The AirCar

Air Car Factories SA is proposing to develop and build a compressed air engine^[17].

Energine

The Energine Corporation was a South Korean company that claimed to deliver fully-assembled cars running on a hybrid compressed air and electric engine. These cars are more precisely named pneumatic-hybrid electric vehicles. ^[18]. Engineers from this company made, starting from a Daewoo Matiz, a prototype of a hybrid electric/compressed-air engine (Pne-PHEV, pneumatic plug-in hybrid electric vehicle). The Daewoo Matiz is a City car produced by the South Korean automaker GM Daewoo that has been marketed worldwide since 1998 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 Pneumatics, Pressurized gas to affect mechanical motion Pneumatic power is used in Industry, where it is common to have factory units plumbed for Compressed 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 The compressed-air engine is used to activate an alternator, which extends the autonomous operating capacity of the car.

The CEO is the first compressed air car promoter to be arrested for fraud. ^[19]

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. ^[20]

EngineAir

EngineAir, an Australian company, is developing a rotary engine powered by compressed air. The rotary engine was an early type of internal combustion Aircraft engine in which the Crankshaft remains stationary and the entire Cylinder ^[21][22]

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.

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 torque 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 and Tata Motors

Main articles: Motor Development International and Tata Motors

MDI proposes a range of vehicles developed on an identical concept, made up of MiniCATs and CityCATs. Motor Development International SA (MDI is a Luxembourgish company that is famous for designing Compressed Air Engine vehicle Tata Motors Limited', formerly known as TELCO (TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Mumbai Motor Development International SA (MDI is a Luxembourgish company that is famous for designing Compressed Air Engine vehicle

The MDI MiniCat has a range of up to 1000 miles when fitted with an internal combustion engine, but that drops to 30 miles when used in ZEV mode at low speeds in cities. OneCAT, priced in a range ($5,100 to $7,800) within reach of consumers in a developing economy, such as India. OneCAT is an upcoming Compressed air car. India 's Tata Motors is collaborating with Air engine developer Guy Nègre of MDI to produce ^[23].

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. Cars can come in a large variety of different body styles. Some are still in production while others are of historical interest only Fiberglass (also called fibreglass and glass fibre see Spelling differences) is material made from extremely fine Fibers of Glass. The most general definition of foam is a substance that is formed by trapping many gas Bubbles in a Liquid or Solid. WikipediaNaming A chassis (plural "chassis" (ˈʃæːsiː ˈtʃæːsiː consists of a framework that supports an inanimate object analogous to an Animal 's ^[24]

The engine is available in two versions. The Mono Energy air engine is a true air engine. The Dual Energy engines are Internal combustion engines, which use hydrocarbon fuels. The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the Combustion of Fuel and an Oxidizer (typically air occurs in a confined space called a ^[25]

They have 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. MDI has entered into an agreement with Tata Motors, to produce air cars in India. Tata Motors Limited', formerly known as TELCO (TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Mumbai India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Zero Pollution Motors will be the first company to manufacture and sell a car in the U. S. called the "Air Car" using MDI technology. ZPM will begin taking reservations in early 2008 for US deliveries in early 2010. ^[26]

Psycho-Active

Team Psycho-Active (TPA) has competed in the Automotive X PRIZE. The Ansari X PRIZE was a Space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offered a US$ 10000000 Prize for the first non-government ^[27] TPA is working to develop the EPOCH: a highly customizable and serviceable pneumatic / multi-fuel hybrid. At its core is the DBRE engine. The DBRE's unique characteristics allow the EPOCH to use most commercially available fuels and/or compressed air. ^[28]

Quasiturbine

Main article: quasiturbine

The Quasiturbine is a prototype for a hybrid engine which, according to its originators, could function with an explosive fuel and with compressed air alike. The Quasiturbine or Qurbine engine is a proposed Pistonless rotary engine using a rhomboidal rotor whose The Quasiturbine or Qurbine engine is a proposed Pistonless rotary engine using a rhomboidal rotor whose

Tata

As of May 2007 Tata Motors of India planned to launch an MDI air car in 2008. Tata Motors Limited', formerly known as TELCO (TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Mumbai India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country ^[29]

Electro-Tech Enterprises

Electro-Tech Enterprises is a small company that specializes in electric air vehicles using a new technology discovered by themselves that is currently in the proto-type phase.

See also

• Air engine
• Charging station
• Compressed air energy storage
• Compressed air vehicles
• Engine swap
• Eolo Car
• Plug-in hybrid
• Pneumatics
• Vaporware
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute

References

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