Tata develops a car to run on Air!

[cooran]

Hello all,

Whatever will the oil giants do?

Tata develops a car that can run on air

The Air Car, called the "Mini CAT"
Imagine a car that emits pure air and even runs on it. You no longer need to imagine it as Tata Motors has reportedly developed a car that can do exactly that. Tata Motors is all set to unveil the Minicat, a car that car run on compressed air.

The Tata Minicat will be the first commercial air-powered vehicle. The car has also been called as the Air Car to make the job of explaining its power source more simply. Developed by Formula One engineer Guy Nigre in Luxembourg for MDI, the Tata Minicat is expected to cost about $8,177 or about Rs.4 lakhs.

Tata Motors will be launching about six thousand of this air powered cars in India son according to reports. One of the most important feature in particular for the cost conscious Indians is its range. The Air Car can run for about 300 kilometres per charge and recharging its air cylinders just $2 or Rs.100 at current exchange rates.

The Minicat's range is achieved by its low weight. This is possible by the extensive use of light materials such as fibre glass. Further the car's panels are not welded but are glued to keep weight low. Micro controllers are used to manipulate the different parts of the car. The parts receive radio signals and respond to them eliminating the need of electric wiring across the car.

The designer of the car is confident that the Air Car will be accepted by all. He has listed some of its features that make it more cheaper to run than an electric car or even a conventional car. The cost of running this car for 100 kilometres is less that Rs 50 which is about the tenth of a cost of running a petrol powered car. The range of this car is no match to any electric car in the market. This essentially means the Tata Minicat is an ideal city car.

Most eco friendly cars are not liked by petrol heads as they do not provide ample performance. But the Minicat air car can reach a top speed of 105kmph which is more that what an electric car can offer. If you find it difficult to refill your car the Minicat also has a compressor that refills tanks and allow the car to run for a short distance. This means this is a compressed air-electric hybrid.

It remains to be seen if this concept car comes out of its development stage to a production stage. This is a difficult ask as there have been no successful models that can run on compressed air along with a practical range.
Written by: Chetan
http://auto.oneindia.in/news/2011/09/28 ... d-air.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Chris

[Kim OHara]

Thanks for that, Cooran. It's an interesting concept and I followed it up to the extent of finding more technical details, here http://johnharding.com/2011/01/26/minic ... wered-car/.
It should indeed be cheap to run and reduce pollution in the cities - both good - but it is essentially another 'long tail pipe' technology, like hydrogen, in that the power source, really, is mains electricity - the compressed air is a way of storing that energy. Until the mains electricity is generated from renewable sources, the Tata runs on coal or oil, so there is still a pollution cost.
This idea, http://auto.oneindia.in/four-wheelers/2 ... cars.html# - from the same site - is a small step towards avoiding that 'long tail pipe'.


Kim

[octathlon]

It should indeed be cheap to run and reduce pollution in the cities - both good - but it is essentially another 'long tail pipe' technology, like hydrogen, in that the power source, really, is mains electricity - the compressed air is a way of storing that energy. Until the mains electricity is generated from renewable sources, the Tata runs on coal or oil, so there is still a pollution cost.

It's still very good and important to continue developing cars that run on portable stored energy now, even though most power comes from coal/nuclear. Both issues can be worked on in parallel.

[Kim OHara]

It should indeed be cheap to run and reduce pollution in the cities - both good - but it is essentially another 'long tail pipe' technology, like hydrogen, in that the power source, really, is mains electricity - the compressed air is a way of storing that energy. Until the mains electricity is generated from renewable sources, the Tata runs on coal or oil, so there is still a pollution cost.

It's still very good and important to continue developing cars that run on portable stored energy now, even though most power comes from coal/nuclear. Both issues can be worked on in parallel.

Sure. The more the better.
But I do think it's important to make it clear (especially to those whose grasp of science is shaky) that this kind of thing is not a magical solution to our fossil fuel woes. Hydrogen, in particular, is very often misunderstood in this way. Often, I think, the journalists writing about aren't clear themselves.


Kim

[chownah]

Good post Kim O'Hara....
One part of an efficient renewable energy program is storage.....storage of energy is needed because renewable sources don't create usable energy all the time but do so at certain peak times....the energy created is sometimes more than can be used during those peak times so storing the unused portion makes obvious sense. Any vehicle which can store this peak time surplus energy can be considered to be part of the renewable energy program...and...the amount of energy which could be stored by all the vehicles in India (for example) is HUGE.....developing vehicles capable of storing renewable energy could be a major factor in promoting renewable energy sources.....a vehicle which runs on compressed air would perform this storage function just like battery powered electric vehicles do.....there is another technology called flywheel storage which stores energy in a heavy rotating flywheel which would do this too........
chownah

[Kim OHara]

Good post Kim O'Hara....
One part of an efficient renewable energy program is storage.....storage of energy is needed because renewable sources don't create usable energy all the time but do so at certain peak times....the energy created is sometimes more than can be used during those peak times so storing the unused portion makes obvious sense. Any vehicle which can store this peak time surplus energy can be considered to be part of the renewable energy program...and...the amount of energy which could be stored by all the vehicles in India (for example) is HUGE.....developing vehicles capable of storing renewable energy could be a major factor in promoting renewable energy sources.....a vehicle which runs on compressed air would perform this storage function just like battery powered electric vehicles do.....there is another technology called flywheel storage which stores energy in a heavy rotating flywheel which would do this too........
chownah

Some good thoughts there, chownah - thanks!
I have come across the idea of using cars as flexible storage for under-used renewable power (mainly solar) before and think it's a good one.
Compressed air could also work that way but has a conversion problem which makes it less attractive - every car would need to hook up to a compressed-air-powered generator to feed its excess energy back into the electrical grid. That's more hardware (and cost), and there is always inefficiency with conversion from mechanical to electrical energy.
Hydrogen may be better, since the excess power stored as hydrogen would be used as hydrogen (when eventually needed) by cars or other machines.
Flywheel energy? I don't know. I think of it as short-term and small scale, maybe just because the idea of mechanical failure of a big one worries me. Would you like a two-ton flywheel jumping its bearings and rampaging through a town near you? I know I wouldn't.
But I think we're going to need, and end up using, all the possibilities we can come up with.


Kim

[Nori]

Wow!

The Air Car, dubbed the "MiniCAT" could cost around $8 thousand in India and would have a range of close to 200 miles between refuels.

The cost of a refill would be only two dollars.

Refilling the car will, once the market develops, take place at adapted petrol stations to administer compressed air. In two or three minutes, and at a cost of approximately two dollars, the car will be ready to go another 200 miles.

As a viable fueling alternative, the MiniCAT carries a small compressor which can be connected to a 220V outlet to refill the tank in 3-4 hours.

Due to the absence of combustion and, consequently, of residues, changing the oil (1 quart of vegetable oil) is necessary only every 30 thousand miles.

Since the temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0-15 degrees below zero, it can be used to air condition the MiniCAT with no loss of power or mileage.

The idea could not have come at a better time when car owners are already reeling under burden of increased fuel prices. The vehicle was developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nigre.

"The idea could not have come at a better time..." for sure.

Hope the US 'follows suit'. (Strong doubts...)

[Kim OHara]

Good post Kim O'Hara....
One part of an efficient renewable energy program is storage.....storage of energy is needed because renewable sources don't create usable energy all the time but do so at certain peak times....the energy created is sometimes more than can be used during those peak times so storing the unused portion makes obvious sense. Any vehicle which can store this peak time surplus energy can be considered to be part of the renewable energy program...and...the amount of energy which could be stored by all the vehicles in India (for example) is HUGE.....developing vehicles capable of storing renewable energy could be a major factor in promoting renewable energy sources.....

Hi, Chownah,
I've just seen that Nissan are trialling the integration of electric cars into the home energy supply in Japan - see http://www.themotorreport.com.au/52253/ ... ncept-home


Kim

[chownah]

Kim O'Hara,
What an exciting development!! Now all that is left is to integrate a solar or wind powered source of electricity (which could be installed either on individual homes or as a shared facility centrally located in a cluster of homes) to be worked in the interface and you've got it seems TWO DAYS of storage potentially....and that will probably increase as better battery technology evolves!!!!! It would not suprise me if large Japanese corporations develop solar of wind charging facilities at at their work places so that they can give their employees all of their home energy needs as a work perk!!!!

Of course the two day of storage depends on building more energy efficient homes like the demonstration one they talk about at the link.....but it looks like the Japanese see that they have the technology to solve the storage problem for alternative sources.....hooray for that...if the Japanese society jumps on this bandwagon whole heartedly then almost assuredly the battle is won!!!!
chownah

[Kim OHara]

It would not suprise me if large Japanese corporations develop solar of wind charging facilities at at their work places so that they can give their employees all of their home energy needs as a work perk!!!!

That's a nice thought.
With the way the Japanese corporations try to become extended family to their workers, they might even do it. Can't see the the same happening in Europe or the US, unfortunately.
But we can do it ourselves. I already have the solar panels (might need to add a few more for this project, but that's easy in principle) so all I need is the electric car and a bit of re-wiring.



Kim

[cooran]

Hello all,

I wouldn’t hold my breath. If we look at, say, steam cars - these have been around for centuries, and at I’d be betting that the petrol/diesel manufacturers will buy patents of the new type of petrolless/dieselless Air machines and just put them in cold storage.
http://inventors.about.com/library/week ... steama.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Chris

[Kim OHara]

Hello all,

I wouldn’t hold my breath. If we look at, say, steam cars - these have been around for centuries, and at I’d be betting that the petrol/diesel manufacturers will buy patents of the new type of petrolless/dieselless Air machines and just put them in cold storage.
http://inventors.about.com/library/week ... steama.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with metta
Chris

Not holding my breath, Chris, but reasonably hopeful. The circumstances now are quite different from even fifteen years ago. (Remember Who Killed the Electric Car? If not, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed ... ric_Car%3F" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) We now have multiple manufacturers in multiple countries; steadily increasing oil prices; imminent (if not already here) peak oil production; better battery technology; increased community acceptance of alternatives; AGW and imminent (if not already here) carbon pricing.
We *need* this kind of technology and I think we're going to get it more quickly than many of us expect. Just look at the uptake of home solar power arrays in the last couple of years.


Kim