May have been covered elsewhere - don't watch all the gadget shows so sorry if old news. Release I've been given for news pages of next RSGS Geographer mag.
- With fuel prices soaring, Tata Motors is set to launch MiniCAT, a car that runs on compressed air, developed by Formula One engineer Guy Nigre in Luxembourg for MDI. Unlike traditional petrol and diesel engines, the MDI technology doesn’t use any form of internal combustion. Instead, it involves four steps:
1
air stored at around 300 bar is used to push the pistons (each requiring only 30 bar of pressure);
2
heating expands the air to a factor of three to five times which is then injected on to the smaller piston, achieving a pressure which is twice as effective as a traditional internal combustion engine;
3
the MDI active chamber, consisting of two pistons per modular engine head, then doubles the energy efficiency;
4
‘cool combustion’ – the sudden cooling of air means that low-grade heat generation can be stored and used to recharge the compressed air storage.
Reports suggest that Tata will launch MiniCAT in India at the end of 2012, with an estimated price tag of Rs 6-700,000 (c£7-8,000). The car apparently has a travelling distance of 300km per tank, with a maximum speed of 105km/hr, and each refill of compressed air will cost Rs 100 (c£1.16) – cheap driving with zero emissions.
Energy to produce compressed air may come from coal in India but elsewhere it could be renewable....
So we could have traffic jams of electric, hybrid and air powered vehicles in future...
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