World’s First Air-Powered Car | Zero Emissions

India’s largest automaker is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine’s pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets in August of 2008.

Barring any last-minute design changes on the way to production, the Air Car should be surprisingly practical. The $12,700 City CAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the City CAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units; MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car’s carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of air at 4350 psi. Drivers also will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car’s built-in compressor to refill the tanks in about 4 hours.

Of course, the Air Car will likely never hit American shores, especially considering its all-glue construction. But that doesn’t mean the major automakers can write it off as a bizarre Indian experiment — MDI has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.

PORTABLE SOLAR POWER PLANT

In many areas of the world, and also during times of natural disasters, clean drinking water and access to power are scarce.  The company The Essential Element has designed the Hydra water purifier and fuel cell to take care of both of those problems at once.

The Hydra is equipped with a 2.88 kW solar panel array that runs a pump that pushes water through a self-cleaning filtration device (capable of purifying 87,000 liters a day), juices up lead-acid gel batteries and runs an electrolyzer that splits some of that water to fill a .37 cubic-meter tank with pressurized hydrogen.

The fuel cell can be used to power communication devices or a camp stove.  The whole device can easily be set up and collapsed for easy transport and includes PV mats that can be plugged into the device for extra power.