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air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:23:10 PM

LadyEllen

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I saw this on the news the other day and intended to post about it then, but forgot....

An engineering company in the south of France has almost perfected a car powered by compressed air. The owner of the company is a former Formula 1 engineer who has designed the vehicle to overcome the performance problems usually associated with such greener means of transport; low speeds, poor range before refuelling, difficulty in finding places to refuel etc.

The car is fuelled by having compressed air pumped into specially designed lightweight fibre glass tanks fitted under the chassis - the air is then sent under pressure into the engine and turns the cranks much like in a petrol engine, so delivering power to the wheels. From the exhaust comes..... air. When refuelling is required, one only needs a compressed air tank - something already widely available and in use in industry.

The car should be on the market next year - for a price tag of around £3000-00 (USD 6000-00 approx). This is around half the price of the cheapest petrol engined car in the European market.

On the downside, the car that was demonstrated is pig ugly - but I would expect the retail model to come with more style. Also on the downside, the vehicle makes no sound but can reach high speeds - posing a possible danger to pedestrians and cyclists and horseriders used to hearing approaching vehicles.

I hope the car is successful and this whole idea is given opportunity to go much further. Imagine if we could get trucks, buses, trains and planes even, powered by the same means?

E

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:31:15 PM

luckydog1

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That is a neat idea, and would be great for use in busses and trains. Not sure about a conventional plane, maybe a dirigible with compressed air for drive could work. Awesome idea for Taxi cabs also

I have seen concepts of this idea with the air compressor built in so you just plug in the car to re fuel, so no compressor station is needed, though I suppose that would be faster.

One drawback is the lack of heat to defrost the windows and heat the cab. I don't think this would replace the familly car, but could sure be used to replace a lot of the IC engines being used today.

Heres a million dollar idea, if you use it, just give me one free. Build a lawnmower that works on this process.

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:31:48 PM

TheHeretic

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I'm not sure how green such a mode of transport would really be. Compressing air takes quite a bit of energy that has to come from somewhere else. It would probably be great for cutting pollution in congested areas though.

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:39:38 PM

LadyEllen

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

I'm not sure how green such a mode of transport would really be. Compressing air takes quite a bit of energy that has to come from somewhere else. It would probably be great for cutting pollution in congested areas though.

Nah - we put the fuelling stations outside prisons and have the inmates pumping air by hand (or leg) until its under pressure, from inside the prison though pipes to the station.

E

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:45:49 PM

TheHeretic

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But even those inmates (and you'd need to lock up a whole lot more) would be breathing out CO2 the whole time. Not to mention how much more we'd have to feed them.

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:47:34 PM

LadyEllen

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Yes - but air contains CO2 so if we could get this technology worldwide, lots of CO2 would be locked up inside the fuelling tanks and the fuel tanks of the cars.

OK, we wouldnt be able to breathe any more, but it solves the CO2 problem.

E

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:50:47 PM

pahunkboy

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as filthy as the air is ... nevermind

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:53:03 PM

TheHeretic

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LOL. Perhaps we could enhance the power generated by capturing methane from the inmates as well, to power a supplemental compressor.

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:54:25 PM

luckydog1

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You render the prisioners into bio fuel....this is so simple. Once you accept that there are to damn many people, all sorts of simple solutions appear, to all our problems....

< Message edited by luckydog1 -- 2/16/2008 3:55:18 PM >

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 3:57:44 PM

Aneirin

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quote:

ORIGINAL: LadyEllen

I saw this on the news the other day and intended to post about it then, but forgot....

An engineering company in the south of France has almost perfected a car powered by compressed air. The owner of the company is a former Formula 1 engineer who has designed the vehicle to overcome the performance problems usually associated with such greener means of transport; low speeds, poor range before refuelling, difficulty in finding places to refuel etc.

The car is fuelled by having compressed air pumped into specially designed lightweight fibre glass tanks fitted under the chassis - the air is then sent under pressure into the engine and turns the cranks much like in a petrol engine, so delivering power to the wheels. From the exhaust comes..... air. When refuelling is required, one only needs a compressed air tank - something already widely available and in use in industry.

The car should be on the market next year - for a price tag of around £3000-00 (USD 6000-00 approx). This is around half the price of the cheapest petrol engined car in the European market.

On the downside, the car that was demonstrated is pig ugly - but I would expect the retail model to come with more style. Also on the downside, the vehicle makes no sound but can reach high speeds - posing a possible danger to pedestrians and cyclists and horseriders used to hearing approaching vehicles.

I hope the car is successful and this whole idea is given opportunity to go much further. Imagine if we could get trucks, buses, trains and planes even, powered by the same means?

E

What a refreshing change that would be, ever been on the receiving end of 'silent death' by stealth cyclists and old grannies in electric buggies?

Yeah, no matter how light a vehicle may be in comparison to a car, being hit at speed by a cycle or an electric buggy is something to be more than winced at.

Those disabled electric buggies, robot wars had the right idea with them and they do reach a fair old speed, especially the type that has indicators fitted.

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 4:04:47 PM

LadyEllen

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

LOL. Perhaps we could enhance the power generated by capturing methane from the inmates as well, to power a supplemental compressor.

That would be a bad idea. The type and amount of bondage required to ensure collection of such emissions and the type and amount of encouragement required to pump the air to the fuelling stations would encourage every submissive/slave in the country to commit serious offences.

And what would we do, with no one to thrash?

E

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 4:18:41 PM

TheHeretic

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We'd get jobs among the massive number of new guards, needed for all those new inmates. At least we'd be convenient to the refueling stations.

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 4:23:04 PM

LadyEllen

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Yes - there is an upside I suppose; but I doubt we'd need cars as we'd enjoy our work so much we'd live on site

we would have to have mixed sex prisons though perhaps......

E

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RE: air powered car on market in 2009 - 2/16/2008 8:14:02 PM

SugarMyChurro

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7241909.stm

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