Energy Efficient: New car runs on Air
Melbourne, Australia is set to be the manufacturing home base for a car that operates with zero emissions and can run solely on compressed air.Guy Negre, who used to design engines for Formula One team Renault, has spent the past 15 years developing the air engine and says the first manufacturing plant will be established in Melbourne with cars expected to go on sale next year.
Mr Negre, the managing director of IT MDI-Energy, which will manufacture the air car, and partner Louis Arnoux have been in Melbourne this month to demonstrate the technology, which is part of a five-year $1.5 billion planned roll-out across Australia. The Victorian and Federal governments have been shown the technology, as well as other potential investors.
Compressed air, not petrol, pushes the engine’s pistons, which can then take the vehicle up to 110 kilometres an hour.Running on compressed air alone, the car can travel 150 kilometres, but when the air is heated externally and incorporated with a fuel source, such as ethanol or diesel, it is possible to travel from Perth to Brisbane without refuelling.Dr Arnoux said the car would be economically and environmentally friendly. He said the first small car would retail for less than $8000 and running costs would be 80% lower than current comparable vehicles.
IT MDI-Energy aims to reduce car emissions in Australia over the next 10 years by 20%. The company says that more than 7000 new jobs will be created over the next five years.Special pumps are needed to fill the compressed air tanks. Service station tyre pumps would not be suitable as they are mostly 1 to 2 bar and some up to 3 bar. The nearest is a scuba tank pump but it would be very slow.
Dr Arnoux said the air engine technology could also be used to power homes.
“The aim is to make it easy and fun for customers to shift to the new technology. As for electrical power, we expect that in most situations costs for a home will be 25% lower than current expenditure,” he said.
“We are used to thinking of ‘green’ being more expensive and cumbersome. This makes a rapid transition to 100% sustainable and enhanced lifestyles possible.
“We have already identified keen demand for off-road applications of the AIRPod in the thousands of units throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific”, said Dr Arnoux, “this gives us time to get through the certification processes in Australia and New Zealand for on-road applications.”
IT MDI – Energy Ltd also plans to launch multi-fuelled point-of-use power generation units that are based on the same compressed gas technology used in the AIRPods. These units are being customised to produce lower cost power, air conditioning, hot water and recycle grey water, with over 60% estimated reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
“We have demand for more than the first two years of production of power generators and vehicles for the first manufacturing facility that we are planning in Melbourne”, said Dr Arnoux. “Our partners, the well known Australian high performance automotive engineering company Perfectune – Yella Terra are scheduled to begin manufacturing for us the first batch of MDI engines in Melbourne before the end of 2008, ahead of IT MDI – Energy’s own manufacturing facility being planned for establishment during 2009. We aim to create a substantial amount of new jobs in both Australia and New Zealand”, he said.
