Is air power the future of transportation?

Ever since the dawn of the automotive era, engineers and auto developers have been trying to find a way to make running the cars as cheap and clean as possible. Though the Oil Crisis of the 1970s, the recent economic recession, and concerns about global warming have speeded up the research and development of alternate-propulsion engines. The latest “green” engine technology to have surfaced in the recent years is the air-propelled variety. Using a piston engine which works very much like a steam engine, the air engine pushes against a piston via the pre-pressurized gas from the fuel tank bypassing the need to use petroleum to power the vehicle.

Air power transportation

Why we are asking this now?

Manufactured by India's largest automaker Tata Motors and developed by Luxembourg-based MDI, the world's first commercial vehicle powered solely by compressed air is almost ready for a public launch. An ex-Formula One engineer Guy Negre is the brains behind the Air Car range that would be the world's cleanest car with zero emissions with a range of 125 miles and a top speed of 68 mph. With an ability to recover up to 13 percent of the power used via a pneumatic brake power recovery system, the engine in an Air Car will automatically be switched off when the car is stationary. Also, the engine emissions are actually cleaner than the air which went into the fuel tank because before it enters the engine, the air is filtered by a carbon-filter which means the air outputted by the powertrain is between -15 and 0 degrees Celsius and 100 percent air that can also be redirected back into the cabin to serve as car's air-conditioning system.

Is it really that serious?

A standard 230V mains power point will refill the tank of the City-CAT’s electricity-powered air compressor unit in less than six hours while the smaller MiniCAT model would be fully recharged in less than four hours when plugged to a 230V socket. Per 100 miles traveled on the car will cost £1 which would be one of main selling points of the vehicle and drivers will be able to refill their tanks in just a few minutes with custom air compressor units installed at petrol stations. To improve the environmental credentials of their vehicles, MDI are likely to use hemp-fibre rather than fiber-glass in the construction of the vehicle with a lightweight and cheap to manufacture fiberglass and foam body being given to the City-CAT. Capable of holding 340 liters of air at 4350 psi, a carbon-fiber fuel-tank will be fitted in one of a proposed range of Air Cars called the City-CAT that will be priced at around £7,000.

What others are saying:

Inventor of the air-powered car and founder of Motor Development International (MDI), Guy Negre said:

It’s unthinkable to create an ecological car that is not also economical because people are not usually prepared to spend money to be environmentally friendly.

This little pencil-shaped rocket (3.5m long, but just 0.8m wide) broke the speed record for compressed air-powered vehicles at the Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI) test facility at Shirosato, Ibaraki Prefecture on September 9th. That’s right, 80.3 MPH running on compressed air alone.

1. Toyota's air powered Ku:Rin

KuRin

Derived from the Japanese word for air (ku) and wheel (rin), the Ku:Rin project came into being in December 2006 in the Dream Car Workshop of Toyota Industries Corporation. A team of 40 members designed and built the first car to run on the air inflated by a compressor that had a pencil shaped rocket. The eco-friendly tricycle became the fastest car driven by a compressed air-engine in the world in 2009 and the company even intended to get it entered into the Guinness World Record for this achievement. Though looks like a steam punk vehicle, the Ku:Rin uses air to propel itself thus outputs zero carbon emission. Running only on air compressor, the vehicle has a speed of 80.3 MPH (129.2km/h) and is fueled by on-board compressed air tank and generates electricity by expanding the compressed air using a reversed AC compressor.

2. Green Speed air-powered motorcycle

Green Speed air-powered motorcycle

Based on an old Suzuki GP100 from the 1970s, the Green Speed Air Powered Motorcycle is an air-fueled bike concept created by industrial designer Edwin Yi Yuan and his team. Using Melbourne-based engineer Angelo Di Pietro’s compact, lightweight and powerful rotary air engine, the bike is powered by the compressed air generated by two compressed air tanks. Revving up to 10,000 RPM, the bike also plans on incorporating have solar panels to increase its range indefinitely by generating extra energy to compress air and store it in the bike’s tanks.

3. Transport Hornet Air-powered motorbike

Transport Hornet

An eco-friendly vehicle for short distance travel, the Transport Hornet is an air-powered zero-emission urban commuter with blistering speed and racing potential and a high power output. Conceptualized by designer Jurmol Yao, the Transport Hornet is built around basic yet efficient mechanism that uses expansive thrust of compressed air to drive the pistons of the compressed air vehicle. This reduces the amount of carbon emitted in the atmosphere and allows the air-powered motorcycle to become one of the cleanest forms of transportation possible.

The main hurdles:

Though the innovations by MDI are indeed heartening, the company must overcome some pretty massive hurdles before it can even think of launching the vehicle as a viable consumer product. First of all, the company has to figure out a way to ensure that the storage tanks used in the vehicle are made sturdy and strong enough so that they don’t explode and cause damage in case of a car crash. Currently, the company is making them out using carbon fiber, but that only adds to the cost of the vehicle hence the company has to figure out a way to make these tanks less expensive yet just as safe.

The second major problem that the makers of air-powered vehicle face is that since the pressure inside the air tanks is 300 bars which adds in some way to the weight of the vehicle lowering its performance. The company has to figure out a way to tackle this problem before launching the vehicle.

What can be done?

To ensure that the air cars get the best mileage possible, everything used in its construction must be kept lightweight. Since an air engine emits less heat than the melting temperature of aluminum, using this metal to make the engine would help reduce the weight of the vehicle. By fashioning other components out of aluminum as well, both the cost and weight of the vehicle can be kept down.

Though the manufacturers have yet to figure out a way to make the air tanks safe, crash-proof and relatively inexpensive, it is not an unachievable task and we’re sure the expertise of MDI and the business acumen of Tata Motors would ensure that only the best, public-friendly product is offered in markets when the project is ready to be launched.