Saturday 16 February 2008
One of the great success stories of recent technological history is carbon fiber. Light, stronger than steel and corrosion proof, it's used in everything from airplanes to fishing rods to sailboat masts. Without carbon fiber composites Guy Negre wouldn't have his air powered cars. It's the super strong carbon fiber pressure tanks that make the cars possible.
Soon cars running on compressed air will go into production - in India. MDI Industries, of Carros, France, which develops the air powered cars and engine technology, has signed a licensing agreement with Tata Motors that allows that company exclusive rights to manufacture and market an MDI car and its technology in the world's second most populous nation. The small, fiberglass composite 770 pound (350 kg) cars could sell for about $5000.
(Tata, by the way, is the same company that is offering its People's Car, the Tatanano which shocked the world recently with its less than $2500 starting price. Concern was raised among environmentalists that the potential of millions more cars on the planet wasn't helpful.)
Negre, who invented the air-power technology, says that Tata will be the only large car company allowed to build cars and use the technology for other purposes. He wants large numbers of investors to build smaller plants scattered around the globe. The plants would build cars and sell them directly to consumers. Up to 80 percent of parts could be locally-sourced, creating jobs. Emissions from shipping parts thousands of miles would be eliminated. Cutting out the middlemen - direct factory to consumer sales - would cut costs as well. With hundreds of factories worldwide, he's looking at one percent of global market share of automobiles - about 680,000 cars a year.
Under the hood of an MDI car is more than just a horizonally-opposed air powered piston engine. The Compressed Air Technology (CAT) includes two types of engines: Mono and Dual-Energy. Mono engines run on compressed air only in urban environments. Dual-Energy engines have a hydrocarbon fueled burner which heats air in the cylinders to increase pressure on the pistons. The addition of a combustible fuel means more power and extended range. The addition of an external heat source acting on the cylinders makes the engine design a close cousin of a Stirling engine.
The car model that Tata Motors will be selling is a version of the OneCAT. MDI's website gives that model a top speed range of 55 - 68 miles per hour and a full tank range of 62 to nearly 500 miles. The significant range increase is due to the addition of heat source. Fuel for the burner can be bio-based or petroleum. On long distance runs the Dual-Energy CAT should achieve 120 miles per gallon. Around town on air-only fuel economy will be higher.
From a specialized, powerful air pumping station, pressure tanks can be refilled in about 3 minutes. At home, using the on-board compressor, filling takes about 4 hours. One can imagine solar-powered air filling stations for true full cycle zero emission transportation.
The engine is made of modules comprised of two opposing cylinders. Modules can be bolted together to make 4 or 6 cylinder engines, for instance. Current engines underdevelopment have power outputs ranging from 4 to 75 horsepower. Further development is planned for engines of 200 horsepower and higher to use in buses and trucks. The company says dozens of modules could be bolted together for even greater output for stationary applications.
The wide range of engine sizes possible with CAT makes for a wide range of possible applications - cars, trucks, buses, electric power generators, tow tractors, forklift trucks, agricultural tractors, outboard motors even engines for light aircraft.
Tata under its agreement is already thinking about power generators for remote use. In power generator mode the engine runs on fuel - anything available - to generate power as needed, or compress air. In emergency situations stored compressed air could run a CAT generator.
There's more than the company talks about as well. One can also imagine using the technology as part of an energy storage system for solar or wind power. Excess energy from either source could be stored as compressed air by way of an electrically-driven compressor.
There's another added value in the technology as well. The engines, being somewhat similar to conventional internal combustion engines, share similar time-tested production techniques - casting and machining for example - and are able to capture the wonders of volume production to keep costs down.
The technology seems like a winner. But if it weren't for carbon fiber it wouldn't be possible.
MDI Enterprises
http://www.mdi.lu/eng/affiche_eng.php?page=accueil
Tata Motors
http://www.tatamotors.com
Tatas Plan to Tap Carbon Credit Mart
By Reeba Zachariah
The Times of India
Monday 18 February 2008
Mumbai - For better or worse, free-market environmentalism is gaining credence in the country. And the latest singing hosannas to the idea is one of India's largest conglomerates, the Tata group.
It is putting into place a plan to measure its carbon footprint, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and figure out how much can the group possibly earn from carbon credits.
Spearheading this initiative at the group is Tata Sons' director JJ Irani. Under him, a 10-member committee comprising top executives from various Tata group companies has been set up. Says Irani,
"The group has always been conscious of being cost efficient. The focus is now shifting towards the environment. We want to be efficient not just economically, but environmentally too. This is (Ratan) Tata's mandate."
A month from now, the group will announce the appointment of a consulting firm, which will work at measuring the carbon footprint spawned by the group. Having done that, it will suggest measures to reduce the breadth of this footprint.
A carbon footprint represents the range of GHG emissions, both direct and indirect, from a firm's operations. In the US and Europe, recent surveys indicate that three out of every four companies are trying to measure the amount of GHG that their businesses generate.
The immediate catalyst behind this exercise is that more than 95% of companies polled in these countries believe there is some business risk in the future if their carbon footprint is not controlled for instance, the fear of regulations like a carbon tax in the future. On the upside, there are immediate incentives, like earning certified emission reductions (CER) or carbon credits for every tonne of GHG reduced. Right now, one carbon credit is valued at Euro 13 (roughly Rs 756). In the case of Indian companies, the Tatas' included, the latter argument is a powerful motivator.
In the Tata fold, group companies like Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals, Tata Metaliks, Tata Sponge, among others, have either already, or are in the process of implementing clean development mechanism (CDM) projects. Tata Steel, the largest company within the group, hopes to earn a million certified emission reductions (CER), or carbon credits, per annum. At current prices, that will add close to Rs 76 crore to Tata Steel's bottomline.
Carbon credits are also the backbone on which Tata Steel has gotten into a unique arrangement with New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation, a Japanese company.
This firm supplied technology and equipment to two of Tata Steel's projects in exchange for carbon credits that will be generated by the projects for a period of 10 years. One such project has the potential to earn 1.5 lakh carbon credits a year. In all, there are about 14-15 projects in Tata Steel's pipeline.
Another group company, Tata Power is in the process of applying for all its renewable (hydro, wind and solar plants) and other appropriate power sources for earning carbon credits. "We are also making an inventory of in-house gases and have plans to further reduce our green house gas emissions," said an executive of Tata Power.
Meanwhile, Tata Motors has reduced carbon emissions of 1.63 lakh metric tonnes by generating energy from wind in Satara and Supe region in Maharashtra, thus earning carbon credits.
The automobile major recently auctioned some of these credits on the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange. Said a Tata Motors spokesperson, "The company has invested in a 42 mw wind farm in Maharashtra in 1999-2000 to promote the use of wind energy. The benefit of this initiative, in terms of CERs up to 2011, is projected to be 32,433 CERs per annum valued at anywhere between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2 crore."
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