Team-BHP
(
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)
Have a look at this -
http://www.theaircar.com
"Guy Negre has developed an engine that could become one of the biggest technological advances of this century. Its application to CAT vehicles gives them significant economical and environmental advantages. With the incorporation of bi-energy (compressed air + fuel) the CAT Vehicles have increased their driving range to close to 2000 km with zero pollution in cities and considerably reduced pollution outside urban areas."
Source :
CNN.com - Car that runs on compressed air - Mar 30, 2005 A Korean company has created a car engine that runs on air.
The engine, which powers a pneumatic-hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), works alongside an electric motor to create the power source.
The system eliminates the need for fuel, making the PHEV pollution-free.
Cheol-Seung Cho, of Energine Corporation, told CNN the system is controlled by a computer inside the car, which instructs the compressed-air engine and electric motor what to do.
The compressed air drives the pistons, which turn the vehicle's wheels.
The air is compressed using a small motor, powered by a 48-volt battery, which powers both the air compressor and the electric motor.
Once compressed, the air is stored in a tank, Cho said.
"The compressed air is used when the car needs a lot of energy, such as for starting up the car and acceleration. The electric motor comes to life once the car has gained normal cruising speed."
He said the system was relatively simple to manufacture and could be easily adapted to any conventional engine system.
"You could say our car has two hearts pumping. That is, we have separate motors running at different times, both at the time when they can perform most efficiently."
Cho also said the system could reduce the cost of vehicle production by about 20 percent, because there was no need to build a cooling system, fuel tank, spark plugs or silencers.
Cho hoped to see PHEVs on streets in the near future.
Peter Kemp, editor of "Petroleum Intelligence Weekly," told CNN that one of the biggest challenges for the invention was persuading the general public to embrace it.
"For this invention to take off, you'd need to get the backing of a major manufacturer. The major manufacturers that are looking at hybrid motors at the moment are looking at fuel cells -- battery with a gasoline diesel combination," he said.
Kemp said Toyota, which has released a hybrid car, had sold about 150,000 of the environmentally friendly model worldwide.
"But that is over several years. There is a lot of demand for that car but that is the only one that is really available and nobody knows whether Toyota is making any money out of it."
For more information, please see
Howstuffworks "How Air-Powered Cars Will Work" How it works - The World´s Cleanest Car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by windsurfer
(Post 332611)
The system eliminates the need for fuel, making the PHEV pollution-free.
|
Not so sure about pollution free, but it is shifting the pollution out of the cities and to the powerplants i guess.
Saw a similar story on Discovery channel yesterday...The prospects looks good...but dunno how much would the wait be.. also need to wait ans see how economically viable would these cars be..
Yes this is indeed true.Students at the university of washington have already developed a working vehicle called ln 2000 which works on compressed liquid nitrogen .Although
the energy density is quite low as compared to fossil fuel powered cars it is still more than electric cars.
Here's the link to the howstuffworks article
Howstuffworks "Could a car run on compressed air?"
To the site about the ln 2000
CryoCar
In case you haven't heard, please read up on this topic on Google, before you call me crazy ;). The idea is pretty simple. In a regular IC engine, an explosion of petrol/air mixture causes a high pressure build-up (24 psi, I think) , pushes the piston, which in turn rotates our wheels. The same effect can be achieved by using compressed air that is stored in a tank.
Such a car can be 'recharged' by means of a small electric pump which 'charges' the air tank. The air tank in effect, acts as a energy reservoir.
The design of the car is also simple. A pneumatic engine, air flow controller, air tank and a light body. The 'charger', which basically is an electric pump can be an external accessory (like the mobile charger).
If implemented properly, I'm sure this idea will be a BIG hit, and I would sure like to give this a try... just for the sake of the pleasure. But sadly, I don't have any infrastructure in place (like a workshop, engine parts, etc), except for some cash.
This is a call for enthusiastic people (like finetuning, and others) to team up and utilize the synergy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by amu1983
(Post 368527)
.... just for the sake of the pleasure. ...
|
now thats what i say what makes one an auto enthusiast. all the best for your project buddy.
Amu1983,
Just a few days back someone was showing me pictures of a car running on compressed air that he built.
The "engine" was a pneumatic gun/wrench used for changing truck tyres. (can switch directions so it has reverse as well), which belt drove a simple "CVT" type transmission, and then chain driven rear axle.
The car had six air tanks, overall volume...similar to about 4 LPG tanks, and it could travel about 1000ft before running out of air!
cya
R
The car would probably resemble the Hindenburg
The above mentioned system uses electric motor to compress the air. Wouldn't it be efficient for the electric motor to run the wheels directly. If the air was compressed by some other means and stored(and not on the vehicle), it makes sense.
Am I missing something here ?
>> The car had six air tanks, overall volume...similar to about 4 LPG tanks, and it could travel about 1000ft before running out of air.
Hmm... that's pretty bad mileage for 4 tanks. A little dig-up of physics fundaes tells you that energy stored in a compressed gas is PV. So, if you have a 1m3 (3ft X 3ft X 3ft) tank of air under 44 psi pressure, you are only gonna get 300,000 J of energy, assuming 100% efficiency. That's equivalent to 300 ml of petrol :-(
We'll have to use a specialized tank that can withstand much higher pressure. The pneumatic engine should also be able to work at that pressure.
The only relief is that the efficiency is expected to be pretty good (80+%) compared to about 50% of the regular IC engine. So, the 300ml petrol worth of energy in the air car is actually equivalent to ~ half a litre of petrol in a regular car.
The frenchman Guy Negre spent 14 years of R&D, developed his trailblazing new engine. His small, family-controlled company is called MDI (Moteur Developpment International). They are located at Carros, near Nice (S. France).
Tata Motors has signed an agreement with MDI, France for using their compressed air powered engines in India. Tata will fund further R&D and own its use and licensing in India, thereby stealing a march on the Japanese, the Americans and the rest of the world.
MDI has two technologies for different needs:
* Single energy compressed air engines
* Dual energy compressed air plus fuel engines
A dual energy engine, will work exclusively with compressed air while under 50 km/h in urban areas.
Available in 2, 4 and 6 cylinder configurations, When the air tanks are empty the driver will be able to request the computer to switch to fuelled mode.
At highway speeds above 50 km/h, the engine's computer will automatically switch to fuel mode. It can use any fuel such as petrol, diesel, kerosene, bio-diesel, gas, liquidized gas, alcohol, etc.
90,000 litres of air is compressed to 4,351 psi (300 bars) and stored in a carbon-fibre tank to drive the MiniCAT's engine. This compressed air filling takes 3 min. in a filling station, or 5˝ hours at home with a conventional 230V compressor.
The Tata MiniCAT is a youthful two-seat runabout that will sell for about Rs. 3.25 lakh.
The body is made of carbon-fibre and injected foam. The chassis frame is made of aluminium rods glued together, (aircraft style) more securely than possible with welding.
Ram
Quote:
Originally Posted by theMAG
(Post 368626)
The car would probably resemble the Hindenburg
|
245 m long, the Hindenburg was longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end.
It contained 200 million litres of flammable Hydrogen gas in 16 cells, to lift 112 tons. It was powered by four 1200 bhp Daimler-Benz diesel engines.
So MiniCAT is more like the Zen Estilo, than the hydrogen-powered Hindenburg, what?:)
| All times are GMT +5.5. The time now is 09:51. | |
