Indian Students Invent Eco-Friendly Motorbike April 22, 2011

Oxygen Bike

In a bid to promote green energy, engineering students from Palwal City in India’s northern Haryana state, have designed a motorbike that runs on oxygen.

The students say their model is a breakthrough invention for eco-friendly vehicles and will reduce dependency on non-renewable fuels such as gasoline and diesel.

[Pratham Pal, Engineering Student]:
“This bike is different from others because the engine doesn’t burn fuel, nor does the temperature rise. The air is compressed and transferred to the engine without any combustion. The piston reciprocates from the air pressure leading to an up-down movement, making the flywheel run and the bike move.”

Students say the basic concept behind the invention is to achieve an equivalent thrust of blast inside the engine without using any combustion.

The bike can run at a speed of six to 12 miles an hour for up to 370 miles using 100 liters of 300 PSI oxygen.

Eco-friendly vehicles are becoming more popular in India as pollution increases, making the students’ prototype viable.

The students are hoping to get financial assistance to develop their prototype further so that they can reach a wider range of customers.

Source and Video of Oxygen Bike

Pat Boone Now Pushing the New “Air Car” February 24, 2010

The CityCAT, already being developed in India (bottom left), will be available for U.S. production in three different four-door styles. But it's the radical dual-energy engine, with a possible 1000-mile range at 96 mph, that could move the Air Car beyond Auto X Prize dreams and into American garages.

The Air Car caused a huge stir when we reported last year that Tata Motors would begin producing it in India. Now the little gas-free ride that could is headed Stateside in a big-time way.

Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com on Thursday that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year.

And while ZPM is also licensed to build MDI’s two-seater OneCAT economy model (the one headed for India) and three-seat MiniCAT (like a SmartForTwo without the gas), the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent, six-seat modified version of MDI’s CityCAT (pictured above) that, thanks to an even more radical engine, is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph with each tiny fill-up.

We’ll believe that when we drive it, but MDI’s new dual-energy engine—currently being installed in models at MDI facilities overseas—is still pretty damn cool in concept. After using compressed air fed from the same Airbus-built tanks in earlier models to run its pistons, the next-gen Air Car has a supplemental energy source to kick in north of 35 mph, ZPM says. A custom heating chamber heats the air in a process officials refused to elaborate upon, though they insisted it would increase volume and thus the car’s range and speed.

“I want to stress that these are estimates, and that we’ll know soon more precisely from our engineers,” ZPM spokesman Kevin Haydon told PM, “but a vehicle with one tank of air and, say, 8 gal. of either conventional petrol, ethanol or biofuel could hit between 800 and 1000 miles.”

Those figures would make the Air Car, along with Aptera’s Typ-1 and Tesla’s Roadster, a favorite among early entrants for the Automotive X Prize, for which MDI and ZPM have already signed up. But with the family-size, four-door CityCAT undergoing standard safety tests in Europe, then side-impact tests once it arrives in the States, could it be the first 100-mpg, nonelectric car you can actually buy?

Source

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Compressed-Air Car You Might See in 2009: ZPM’s 106 MPG Compressed-Air Hybrid November 11, 2008

Compressed-Air Powered cars could take you over 800 miles on a single fill-up, at speeds of up to 96 mph. They should refuel in less than 3 minutes, and at speeds over 35 mph emit about half the CO2 of a Toyota Prius. Best part? You could see them in the US at the end of next year.

Their Mission: To bring zero pollution motoring at any speed, for any distance, to the largest number of motorists possible and, in doing so, significantly improve the quality of the air we breathe and reduce our collective carbon footprint.

Cutting Edge Concept

The compressed air vehicle is a new generation of vehicle that finally solves the motorist’s dilemma: how to drive and not pollute at a cost that is affordable!

The compressed air vehicle is built with the high performance Compressed Air Engine (CAE) technology developed by Formula One race car engineer Guy Negre. This technology is proprietary and protected by over 40 patents to date. Negre applied his years of knowledge and experience developing Formula One engines — which start with a kick of compressed air — to achieve this major first step towards his ultimate vision: enabling clean driving at any speed and for any distance, at a cost that makes it a reality for everyone.

World’s Cleanest Car

To drive the world’s cleanest car is no longer wishful thinking. The Compressed Air Vehicle is the first affordable and accessible clean car. It brings us our dream: to drive pollution-free and free of fuel dependency.

At Lower Speeds: Since the Compressed Air Vehicle is running exclusively on compressed air, it emits only air – zero pollution. The air expelled from the tail pipe is actually cleaner than the air used to fill the tank. This is because before compression, the air is run through carbon filters to eliminate dirt, dust, humidity, and other urban air impurities that could hamper the engine’s performance.

At Higher Speeds: At speeds over 35mph the Compressed Air Vehicle uses small amounts of fuel–either gasoline, propane, ethanol or bio fuels–to heat air inside a heating chamber as it enters the engine. This process produces emissions of only 0.141lbs of CO2 per mile. That is up to 4 times less than the average vehicle and more than two times less than the cleanest vehicle available today. (Toyota Prius 07 Emissions: 0.34 lbs of CO2 per mile. Source: www.hybridcars.com)

How the Engine Works

Diagram Explained:

Mode A: Operating with compressed air from Air Tank only 1. in town under 35 mph.

Mode B: Operating with compressed air from Air Tank only 1. which is being heated 2. to expand volume before entering engine.

Mode C: Operating with air from the Intake 3. which is being heated 2. to expand volume before entering engine – on highway over 35 mph.

Mode D: Operating as in Mode C but also refilling 4. Air Tank while running.

Go to Zero Pollution Motors’ website:

http://www.zeropollutionmotors.us/