A Car That Runs Nitrous Oxide, and a Way to Cut Scooter Pollution

You’ve seen cars that run on ethanol, biodiesel, and electricity. Now, the engineers at Freescale Semiconductor have concocted one that runs on compressed tanks of nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas. The compressed nitrous comes out of the tanks next to the driver’s seat, turns two pistons in the engine, and the engine turns the wheels.

They could have really used something like this on the set of Blue Velvet. It would be a great thing to have to get around the parking lot at a Bob Weir concert too.

Freescale, however, is not trying to develop a market for compressed gas cars. Instead, the car is a fancy way to show off a prototype for a product the company (formerly Motorola Semiconductor) believes could have a big impact in cutting pollution in the emerging world. It is a cheap, electronic fuel injection system for two-stroke scooters.

Scooters are an important form of transportation in cities like New Delhi as well as an important source of air pollution. To curb emissions, both India and China have passed regulations that effectively will ban traditional carburetor-based scooters. That means coming up with scooters based around fuel injection systems, which let engines burn fuel more efficiently. Some scooters currently have electronic fuel injection systems, but they cost a lot.

“You can’t just add $100 to a $700 product,” said John Cotner, field engineer for Freescale.

Freescale’s goal is to come out with a two-chip engine controller that will cost around $50 or less. Right now, the product (see second picture) is in the prototype stage and consists of a number of parts stuck to a board. Potential customers can now obtain the boards to design future scooters. They can tinker with the board and then insert the final product into their scooters when it come out in 2010 or so. (The fuel injection prototype works on both a regular engine and the compressed nitrous engine because the board basically is being asked to do the same thing. Namely, precisely control the flow of materials.)

Besides spewing fewer fumes into the atmosphere, fuel injection scooters will also likely get higher mileage, noted Cotner.