Air-powered car

[Boffin]

Coming to an entrepreneur near you soon - the car that runs on air. linky

[tobyzusa]

Ok. but energy is required to compress air. if the claim of 120 mpg is real, then perhaps it's the real deal. I suspect not.

[Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs]

Ok. but energy is required to compress air. if the claim of 120 mpg is real, then perhaps it's the real deal. I suspect not.

Okay, but it's a fantastic study with high hopes. Of course the oil giants, US automakers and the government will squash any hopes of it coming to the US, and the price would be at least 5 times as much. Still it gives hope for the future technologies.

[4wheeldog]

Compressing air is just not that efficient method of energy storage. I doubt it can approach 40%. Folks have used flywheels in a vacuum, batteries etc. Compressing air would not rival those, efficiency wise, IMHO.

You are still converting some form of energy, (Electrical, internal combustion) to do the compressing. Effiency goes out the window when you do that.

[Baba_ORiley]

"weighing just 350kg"

 

 

That's about a 770 lbs. car! There are golf carts (and motorcycles) that weigh more.

 

Light weight can be good, but a vehicle that light doesn't sound very robust.

 

 

 

 

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[velomoto]

Compressed air may offer other advantages... for example it removes pollution from high density urban areas. This is the one reason electric mass transit is popular in cities.

 

Compressed air also represents "stored energy". This is reason there are hydroelectric dams where the water is pumped back up into the lake at night (when energy is cheap and readily available) and the water from the lake is used to generate electricity during peak demand. In some cases wind energy is used to pump the water.

 

Will compressed air be the end all, cure all most efficient form of transportation? Certainly not. Might this technology offer advantages in specific applications? Yes absolutely.

[Albert]

Well gasoline is also a form of "stored energy" so I don't see any advantage there. What the air and electric vehicles are offering is a transfer of the location where the energy generation takes place (thus the pollution). In the typical internal combustion vehicle the location is the vehicle itself. In both electric and air it's at the power station (excluding solar of course). That's nice for the city dwellers but may not be great for anyone or anything living around the power plant.

 

Many of these vehicles offer impressive efficiencies however a 770 kg internal combustion vehicle with the latest engine technology would yield impressive numbers too. In my opinion the US has dropped the ball miserably in researching new technologies that could, and eventually must, replace fossile feuled internal combustion. If we spent half of what pharmacuetical companies spent researching restless leg syndrome we'd probably have a viable alternative today.

 

Ok down from my soapbox now.

[steveknapp]

If we spent half of what pharmacuetical companies spent researching restless leg syndrome we'd probably have a viable alternative today.

 

People seem more willing to pay for drugs than clean vehicles. Making the drug research a better investment, even more so with the "Baby boomers" getting old.

[Albert]

People seem more willing to pay for drugs than clean vehicles.

 

True. Sadly, improving the latter would likely reduce some of the necessity for the former.

[BruceWA]

Compressed air also represents "stored energy". This is reason there are hydroelectric dams where the water is pumped back up into the lake at night (when energy is cheap and readily available) and the water from the lake is used to generate electricity during peak demand. In some cases wind energy is used to pump the water.

Hydro projects by their very nature are storing electrical energy as water until it is used to spin the generator(s). But one must recognize that "pumped storage" is not free energy. More energy is consumed to pump water into the reservoir than is generated. Still a good idea, but not a one for one trade. It also should be mentioned since FERC ordered the deregulation of the electric utilities in 1996, with implementation in 1998, that most utilities no longer operate their hydro projects for storage. The open market in essence has changed the way they operate.

 

Does anyone else recall the vehicles that appeared on The Price is Right about 30 years ago? Do not recall the details, but they proved to be a scam. Seems like even some very informed folks lost some money.

 

Am NOT saying the compressed air vehicle is a scam!!!