Y'know, get one of those 12V portable compressors, have it running while you
are and you've got something approaching a perpetual motion m/c. Provide a
trickle charger for the battery you can plug into the external mains of a
building and, while you're in town, you won't have to visit a "compressor
station" except when you need a quick boost for a longish journey. 'Course a
soundproof container might be worth considering!
Kit Hildreth
>From: KRIS.VANBAELEN@electrabel.com
>Reply-To: KRIS.VANBAELEN@electrabel.com
>To: morgans@autox.team.net
>CC: jimg2@webtv.net, mgb-v8@autox.team.net, Murphys@ziplink.net
>Subject: Zero pollution: 40,000 of them for the Mexican government
>Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2000 14:55:20 +0100
>
>Copyright 2000 Newspaper Publishing PLC
>The Independent (London)
>October 26, 2000, Thursday
>SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 14
>LENGTH: 395 words
>HEADLINE: TAXIS THAT RUN ON FRESH AIR ALONE MAY SOLVE POLLUTION PROBLEMS IN
>CITIES
>BYLINE: Charles Arthur Technology Editor
>BODY:
>A CAR THAT runs on fresh air and exudes even fresher air might sound like
>an
>environmentalist's fantasy.
>
>But there is such a vehicle - and a French company has a contract to build
>40,000 of them for the Mexican government, which wants to use them as taxis
>in Mexico City, the most polluted city on earth. The car's inventor says
>that in cities it could soon challenge cars powered by conventional fuels.
>
>Guy Negre, a former designer of engines for Formula 1 cars and lightweight
>aircraft, has been working on his "zero pollution" design for almost 10
>years. He believes it is now ready to go into full production.
>
>The power unit burns nothing. It gets its motive power from 300 litres of
>air, compressed to 300 times atmospheric pressure. Mr Negre says tests
>indicate that it could run for 120 miles in an urban environment - where
>speeds of 30mph would be sufficient - but that it could also manage a top
>speed of up to 60mph.
>
>Recharging the vehicle would simply require a stop at an "air pumping"
>station, where the tanks would be refilled. The stop would take less than
>five minutes.
>
>The car runs by releasing the supercompressed air into a piston chamber,
>driving the piston down. Heated air from outside is then added to the
>chamber to warm it up, and the mixture is expelled as the piston rises
>again. The expelled air is passed through carbon filters, meaning that
>generally it will emerge cleaner than the air that went in.
>
>Mr Negre insists that the "Taxi Zero Pollution", as the car has been
>dubbed,
>handles and drives just as well as a normal one. He has licensed the design
>to a number of companies to build it in different countries: moves are
>under
>way to manufacture them in Mexico, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia,
>New
>York, Switzerland and France. There are negotiations over a plant for the
>UK, but nothing has been decided.
>
>Possible difficulties with the project include providing a big enough
>network of air filling stations, and starting the vehicle if the air tanks
>are nearly empty, when they might not have enough energy to keep the car
>going.
>
>Steve Hounsham of the pressure group Transport 2000 said: "This could make
>a
>worthwhile contribution to reducing pollution, but that's only one problem
>that needs to be addressed. It won't reduce congestion, road traffic
>accidents or pressure on the countryside."
>GRAPHIC: The 'zero pollution' taxi
>
>Kris Van Baelen
>
>EURO Program
>tel: 02.518.6082
>gsm: 0477.40.99.30
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