Kick Back and Relax in the Cheers! Forum. Thoughts on life or want advice or thoughts from other pca members. Or just plain "chill". Originator of da Babe threads.
India’s largest automaker is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine’s pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets in August of 2008.
Barring any last-minute design changes on the way to production, the Air Car should be surprisingly practical. The $12,700 CityCAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units; MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car’s carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of air at 4350 psi. Drivers also will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car’s built-in compressor to refill the tanks in about 4 hours.
They've talked about this before and I think it's nonsense. AIR is not a fuel. You are using the commercial power grid to power a compressor and compressed air is NOT an efficient way to store energy.
A (slightly) better method would be an electric car but again you are still using the power grid to inefficiently transfer energy to a battery and then utilize the battery to power the vehicle.
Christians warn us about the anti-christ for 2,000 years, and when he shows up, they buy a bible from him.
FlyingPenguin wrote:They've talked about this before and I think it's nonsense. AIR is not a fuel. You are using the commercial power grid to power a compressor and compressed air is NOT an efficient way to store energy.
A (slightly) better method would be an electric car but again you are still using the power grid to inefficiently transfer energy to a battery and then utilize the battery to power the vehicle.
I dont know enough about it to pose an intelligent debate but just off the top of my head it sure sounds better than the $5 a gallon gas I am hearing is around the corner.
That car will never make it to the US because it doesn't have all the safety requirements that automobiles sold in the US require. If they did modify the car to meet requirements, it would be too heavy to move.
Looks like some great engineering though. Especially the rear door that slides forward, blocking the passenger side door.
FlyingPenguin wrote:They've talked about this before and I think it's nonsense. AIR is not a fuel. You are using the commercial power grid to power a compressor and compressed air is NOT an efficient way to store energy.
A (slightly) better method would be an electric car but again you are still using the power grid to inefficiently transfer energy to a battery and then utilize the battery to power the vehicle.
True, but if that power is coming from panels on the roof it is better
"I'm seriously going to pummel you until you purr like a bitch-kitten!!"
So it can go 125 miles on just compressed air. Im gonna get one and rice it out and make it run on liquid Nitrogen. then it can go farther and I bet I could use the cold from the expanders to chill the inside of the car to -50.
[align=center]A self-aware artificial intelligence would suffer from a divide by zero error if it were programmed to be Amish[/align]
Pugsley wrote:So it can go 125 miles on just compressed air. Im gonna get one and rice it out and make it run on liquid Nitrogen. then it can go farther and I bet I could use the cold from the expanders to chill the inside of the car to -50.
Be sure to mix a little Oxygen with that. You may feel a little light-headed otherwise.
Oh, there wont be any more then normal amounts of nitrogen in the air. Think of an expander as a backwards radiator. Instead of expelling heat, it collects it and adds it to the liquid nitrogen and causes it to boil faster. All this is sealed.
In this picture the tower thing is the expander. just a bunch of pipe with fins on it to collect heat.
[align=center]A self-aware artificial intelligence would suffer from a divide by zero error if it were programmed to be Amish[/align]
ther compressed gases and you could fill it up at Taco Bell.
