Re: Slightly OT: The Indians will save us all

Re; your header; 'The Indians will save us all'. Any fool knows Al Gore
will save us all. He's working on a plan to run vehicles on bull***, and
simultaneously funding much energy research by personally consuming about 5
times what the average household does.

KH
"Tommy Grand" <howardj911@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:719f89df-4295-413b-9185-b84375dceb81@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7243247.stm

An engineer has promised that within a year he will start selling a
car in India that runs on compressed air, producing no emissions at
all in towns.

The OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing
just 350kg and could cost just over £2,500.

The project is being backed by the Indian conglomerate, Tata for an
undisclosed sum. It says the technology may also be used for power
generation.

The car will be driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre
tanks.

The tanks, built into the chassis, can be filled with air from a
compressor in just three minutes - much quicker than a battery car.

Alternatively, it can be plugged into the mains for four hours and an
on-board compressor will do the job.

For long journeys the compressed air driving the pistons can be
boosted by a fuel burner which heats the air so it expands and
increases the pressure on the pistons. The burner will use all kinds
of liquid fuel.

The designers say on long journeys the car will do the equivalent of
120mpg. In town, running on air, it will be cheaper than that.

Analysts say the fact that the project has the backing of an
internationally well known company such as Tata makes the idea much
more marketable.

The Indian company - which will put the finishing touches to the
engine - says it is even considering using the technology for power
generation.

Parts of the country are desperately short of electricity supplies. On
Tuesday officials announced that Delhi and Moscow had finalised plans
for Russia to build four new nuclear power stations in India.

Breakthrough

"The first buyers [of the compressed air car] will be people who care
about the environment," says French inventor Guy Negre.

"It also has to be economical."


Mr Negre has been promising for more than a decade to be on the verge
of a breakthrough.

Last Updated: Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 16:05 GMT

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

India's Tata backs air-power car
By Roger Harrabin
Environment analyst, BBC News



The Aircar can be filled with air in just three minutes
An engineer has promised that within a year he will start selling a
car in India that runs on compressed air, producing no emissions at
all in towns.

The OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing
just 350kg and could cost just over £2,500.

The project is being backed by the Indian conglomerate, Tata for an
undisclosed sum. It says the technology may also be used for power
generation.

The car will be driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre
tanks.

The tanks, built into the chassis, can be filled with air from a
compressor in just three minutes - much quicker than a battery car.

Alternatively, it can be plugged into the mains for four hours and an
on-board compressor will do the job.

For long journeys the compressed air driving the pistons can be
boosted by a fuel burner which heats the air so it expands and
increases the pressure on the pistons. The burner will use all kinds
of liquid fuel.

The designers say on long journeys the car will do the equivalent of
120mpg. In town, running on air, it will be cheaper than that.

Analysts say the fact that the project has the backing of an
internationally well known company such as Tata makes the idea much
more marketable.

The Indian company - which will put the finishing touches to the
engine - says it is even considering using the technology for power
generation.

Parts of the country are desperately short of electricity supplies. On
Tuesday officials announced that Delhi and Moscow had finalised plans
for Russia to build four new nuclear power stations in India.

Breakthrough

"The first buyers [of the compressed air car] will be people who care
about the environment," says French inventor Guy Negre.

"It also has to be economical."


Mr Negre has been promising for more than a decade to be on the verge
of a breakthrough.


The compressed air is stored in carbon-fibre tanks

Tata is the only big firm he'll license to sell the car - and they are
limited to India. For the rest of the world he hopes to persuade
hundreds of investors to set up their own factories, making the car
from 80% locally-sourced materials.

"This will be a major saving in total emissions," he says.

"Imagine we will be able to save all those components travelling the
world and all those transporters."

He wants each local factory to sell its own cars to cut out the middle
man and he aims for 1% of global sales - about 680,000 per year.

Terry Spall from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers says: "I
really hope he succeeds. It is a really brave experiment in producing
a sustainable car."

But he said he was interested to see how the car would fare with
safety tests and how much it would appeal to a public conditioned to
expect luxury fittings adding to the weight of the vehicle.

Mr Negre says there's no issue with safety - if the air-car crashes
the air tanks won't shatter - they will split with a very loud bang.
"The biggest risk is to the ears."


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