I'm so excited today! I've been doing a lot of research on new renewable energy sources and ran across a new technology that's going into its initial mass production phase this year. It's a new vehicle line prototype and it runs solely on compressed air! The manufacturer, MDI is based in France! Yes, the French have took the lead in environmentally-friendly and renewable resource and AFFORDABLE automobiles that run on compressed air! Since our time has basically been consumed by all of the repub attempts to obstruct the Obama(and our Dem party's) agenda, I had hoped, and was chomping at the bit to post this diary yesterday. But I was waiting on MDI to send me their express written permission to post their copyright protected material solely on the Daily Kos. Well, I checked my email box and lo and behold, I got their express written permission to post any or all of their copyright-protected works! More under the fold...
Everyone feast your eyes on the cutting edge of a new age in technology!
I'm so excited today, because this vehicle sounds the death-knell for our dependence on foreign oil! It represents the potential for the creation of millions of green jobs that cannot be outsourced, because local labor will be used for any authorized factory or licensed subsidiary built right here in America! This amazing invention is truly a dream come true!
Background on the inventor:
MDI (Motor Development International) is a project initiated and directed by Guy NEGRE the CEO of the company, this mechanical engineer started his career with researches on engines’ efficiency. Among his numerous creations, we particularly remember a rotary distribution device for a R8 GORDINI which produced 152 HP at 11 000 rpm, his light aircraft engines (SACMA) and also the development of a 3.5 liters W 12 engine, for Formula 1 races in the 80s. Throughout his career Guy NEGRE, has designed nearly one hundred engines.
Having in mind the protection of the planet, Guy NEGRE has then concentrated his efforts towards the development of zero pollution engines and created MDI in 1991.
The aims of this company are to promote and develop ecological energies; conceive and produce non-pollutant vehicles and systems.
Its study office develops new technologies and innovative production methods.
MDI is the owner of numerous patents pertaining to the improvement of its compressed air engines and their technical environment; these patents are protected in 127 countries.
Fifty engineers and technicians work on the compressed air vehicles with the support of TATA Motors, the exclusive licensee for MDI’s technologies in India since 2007.
The agreement provides that TATA will support the technologies final development and optimization for their use in India.
In the rest of the world MDI follows its business models (see Industrial concept) i.e. the sales of licenses and turnkey factories for the manufacturing and commercialization of its products.
http://www.mdi.lu/...
http://www.mdi.lu/...
http://www.mdi.lu/...
The Compressed Air Engines
The fruit of more than ten years of researches, MDI’s mono-energy engines operate on a totally eco-friendly basis using compressed air stored at high pressure.
These engines are used on vehicles designed for urban use, backup generators or industrial tractors. They are particularly tailored for applications where the torque has an importance and when an averagely moderate power is needed.
Together with the zero pollution engines, some other versions having the same technical basis have also been created by MDI, they are known as the dual-energy engines. In the case of dual-energy engines, an energetic adjuvant (petrol, diesel, oil, alcohol or gas) is burned in an external continuous combustion chamber. These dual-energy engines have more range and the amount of toxic gases released is very low.
Less than two Liters per hundred Kilometers (at 90 Km/h for MiniFlowAIR)
Zero NOx,
3 to 4000 times less unburned HC compared to conventional engines.
3 times less C02 emissions in comparison to classic engines.
These engines will be fitted on production generators. Regarding the vehicles that will be operated using these engines; there will be no pollution when used in towns as they would be operating on the ‘compressed air mode’ only.
On the motorway these engines provide a good range thanks to the combustion of the liquid or gas adjuvant.
Finally based on this new technology, MDI has imagined and developed a « thermodynamic theory » which will give rise to further improvement in the years to come, thus creating a real energetic revolution.
All MDI engines have an active chamber and are protected worldwide by patents.
They can be used for a wide range of applications, varying from 4 to 75 hp.
The engines will be used in the following:
Urban transporters
MDI’s eco-friendly cars (OneFlowAIR, MiniFlowAIR and CityFlowAIR)
MDI’s urban transporters (MultiFlowAIR)
Production and backup generators
Tow tractors and fork-lifts
Agricultural tractors
Boat engine
Light aircraft engine
http://www.mdi.lu/...
The MDI Dealer/Manufacturer/Partner Concept
In 1999, MDI imagined and created the "Dealer/Manufacturer/Partner" concept by commercializing turnkey factories to manufacture cars locally. Unlike the huge classic assembly plants (particularly pollutant), the MDI concept offers various micro production factories throughout the world.
These plants will manufacture 80% of the vehicle and will sell them in the same location.
This concept represents a drastic decrease in costs and the logistic problems associated with the conventional process (stocks and freight of finished cars to the dealers etc...) and not withstanding it beneficial impact on the environment.
In the MDI production concept, the suppliers are chosen in a way to reduce costs, logistics and freights. All the purchases are managed at the MDI central purchasing unit, to beneficiate from the advantages of bulk buying.
Taking into account the amount of MDI plants necessary to reach the number of manufactured cars in a conventional plant, the MDI industrial concept allows for a reduction in the logistic costs and a decrease in the percentage of CO2 generated in the transport of finished cars and raw materials.
A global comparison of the conventional production system with the MDI concept, based on the same amount of vehicles manufactured annually, provides the following when the MDI’s concept is used:
1/3 of the land surface is necessary.
1/4 of a conventional assembly factory.
1/5 of the total investment.
30% more employees necessary.
The principal advantages of MDI’s production method are:
Ecologic
Better repartition of the energy necessary for production.
No pollution caused by the transport of finished vehicles.
Economic and social
Currency stays in the country, local employment;
no population transfer from countryside to cities.
Transfer of knowledge and knowhow.
Quality
A car is produced every 30 Minutes.
Use of techniques that are not compatible with conventional production methods.
Marketing
Purchase of locally manufactured cars (Government...)
Decrease in import taxes (which can be very high in some countries)
COSTS
Small facilities, easy to manage.
Logistics drastically diminished.
No stocks, spare parts are produced ‘after time’
The MDI concept diminishes production costs.
The MDI’s production concept is applicable in all countries except in India where TATA MOTORS is the exclusive licensee.
Tata Motors, in keeping with its role as the leading company in India for automotive R&D, has signed an agreement with MDI for the application of MDI’s revolutionary compressed air engine. The agreement between Tata Motors and MDI envisages Tata’s supporting further development and refinement of the technology.
http://www.mdi.lu/...
Just think, one day soon this inexpensive vehicle(about $25,000 or slightly higher) could be sitting in your driveway very soon!
As an added treat for all of you renewable energy fanatics like me, I'm sharing this article on WIND POWER I stumbled across yesterday:
Jay Leno Builds a Wind Turbine on His Green Garage
As part of an ongoing project with Popular Mechanics to make his garage more sustainable, the Tonight Show host is getting set to install a state-of-the-art turbine on top of the shop.
Wind power usually brings to mind those giant, prop-style turbines in Denmark or their much smaller cousins, like the 900-watt Whisper 100 that our PM’s off-the-grid Energy Family uses in Vermont. As those innovative solutions have proved, wind can be a great compliment to solar power—and the rest of this country is just starting to catch up. So as we move forward with Jay Leno on transforming his Green Garage, you’ll probably see a rooftop solar panel array augmented by wind power to help the shop generate its own energy and become self-sufficient.
See Jay Leno transforming his green garage here:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/...
http://www.popularmechanics.com/...
Recently, Jay had a chance to meet up with the folks from PacWind, a company that makes vertical-axis wind turbines like the 500-watt Seahawk they brought by the garage. Drag-type vertical turbines such as these move a lot like those three-cup anemometers commonly used for measuring wind speed. But the PacWind design is unique in that its foils utilize the forces of lift, too, making them more efficient.
The Seahawk was just one example of Pacwind’s turbines—and Jay was impressed. But for the 17,000-sq-ft. garage, which uses, um, quite a bit of energy each month, the PacWind team recommended their brand-new, top-of-the-line Delta II turbine. It can produce 10 kw at around 28 mph and has a cut-in wind speed of 6 mph. These turbines don’t need a braking mechanism and can self-start at very low wind speeds—something similar designs in the past could never do. Generating usable wind power can be quite tricky, since wind is fickle and performance can vary from place to place. But according to Pacwind, Jay’s garage looks like a very suitable spot.
A few more neat things about these vertical turbines: They take up very little space, they’re virtually silent, and multiple units can be placed within feet of one another. Delta II units can also be stacked vertically up to 50 kW. We wouldn’t be surprised to see quite a few of these 9-ft., 500-lb. turbines lining the upstairs of the Green Garage very soon.
For a full breakdown on wind energy technology in America:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/
http://www.popularmechanics.com/...
So we need to stay on message and stop the party of No from taking us off the message we were elected to LEAD! Our very survival in a global economy dictates that we grab the bull by the horns and not let these opportunites to take the lead into the 21st century pass us by!