There is a potentially very interesting development in transport with the prototype of the Airpod city car (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/14/air-powered-car-hybrid-france) that is largely constructed from fibre glass, will cost around £3000 and runs on compressed air being 'aired'. The three wheel vehicle can easily reach 40-50 kph and can travel 100 km on a one minute recharge of compressed air. The car has no need of expensive, heavy batteries that take a long time to charge and have to be replaced every 5 years or so and the compressed air is stored in a thermoplastic chamber protected by a carbon fibre shell. The vehicle will generate only one tenth of the carbon dioxide emissions of a regular car even if the electricity used to drive the air compressor is derived from burning oil and coal (much less if wind or waves are employed to generate electricity). A hybrid version is said to be capable of reaching speeds of 160 kph and will travel 320 km on a litre of fuel. The French inventor (Guy Negre) points out that traditional hybrid cars do little to improve emissions, that electric cars have obvious problems with batteries and recharging and that hydrogen power is "impractical and expensive". Air France/KLM are apparently replacing their vehicles with M. Negre's vehicles and the Indian car manufacturer Tata has taken out an option to employ the technology.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Air Today and Not Gone Tomorrow?
There is a potentially very interesting development in transport with the prototype of the Airpod city car (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/14/air-powered-car-hybrid-france) that is largely constructed from fibre glass, will cost around £3000 and runs on compressed air being 'aired'. The three wheel vehicle can easily reach 40-50 kph and can travel 100 km on a one minute recharge of compressed air. The car has no need of expensive, heavy batteries that take a long time to charge and have to be replaced every 5 years or so and the compressed air is stored in a thermoplastic chamber protected by a carbon fibre shell. The vehicle will generate only one tenth of the carbon dioxide emissions of a regular car even if the electricity used to drive the air compressor is derived from burning oil and coal (much less if wind or waves are employed to generate electricity). A hybrid version is said to be capable of reaching speeds of 160 kph and will travel 320 km on a litre of fuel. The French inventor (Guy Negre) points out that traditional hybrid cars do little to improve emissions, that electric cars have obvious problems with batteries and recharging and that hydrogen power is "impractical and expensive". Air France/KLM are apparently replacing their vehicles with M. Negre's vehicles and the Indian car manufacturer Tata has taken out an option to employ the technology.
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5 comments:
Hi Prof,
Interesting concept, and it works! I would be cautious about some of Guy Negre's remarks, though. The Hydrogen Fuel Cell is proven and it is currently being further proven all over the world, I think. Have you been on a Hydrogen Fuel Cell bus yet? I think there are one or two in London already - I can't wait. Regarding cost, so is every technology expensive during development - prices will fall dramatically once in production.
As for Negre's claim that fibreglass is 10 times stronger than steel, I think that needs some qualification.
In my view the answers to our transport problems will be many and varied according to need and purpose - compressed air looks like being one of those answers. Thanks for the great blog, btw.
Thanks for the extra information. There always seems to be an element of 'hard sell' about any of these potential alternatives.
I feel alternatives to the internal combustion engine aren't 'hard sold' enough! Roll on great changes like these.
Great post, great blog.
I mean, as long as they are valid claims etc...
Exactly!
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