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#1
11-03-2008, 11:17 AM
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Air-powered Cars: BS or What?
The idea seems simple and is getting a lot of press coverage, yet there are no working models that get the claimed mileage and performance. Lots of technical hurdles, like severe icing, and a backup motor that runs on 'any hydrocarbon fuel' make this look more like a scam or a daydream. A company called Zero Pollution Motors plans to build air-car factories all over the US by 2010, but their website is MIA.
What gives?
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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles 2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed 2005 Toyota Sienna 2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible 1999 Toyota Tacoma 
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#2
11-03-2008, 12:21 PM
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From what I've heard - its a simple energy balance - Compare a few things:
Then you should be able to compare this to the amount of energy (again, in watts) that it takes to move a car down the road. 3E+05 kJ to move a car at 55mph for 1 hour (no accel or decel, flat road...) math done here According to that Wiki thing, 1 cubic meter of air at 200bar (3000psi) is good for 180kJ of energy. wiki wiki wiki What this tells me is that, assuming a perfectly efficient air motor, you'd need 166cu-meter air tank, compressed to 3000psi to drive 55miles. You could improve If you up the pressure to 10000psi (we are pushing current materials technology at this point) you might need a third of the 166cubic meters...but still.... I welcome real engineers/math people to disprove my the science - my impression was the compressed air powered stuff is doable but you'd have to compress the air A LOT to go any more than 20 or 30 miles, and it'd take up a fair amount of room to do so. -John
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2009 Kia Sedona 2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L 12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse (insert Mercedes here) Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)
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#3
11-03-2008, 01:54 PM
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a very 'cool' byproduct...
The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0 - 15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power. more info... http://jalopnik.com/398180/tata-nano-to-offer-compressed-air-engine-optional-make-electric-cars-look-silly
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Cheers, Robert
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#4
11-03-2008, 03:02 PM
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__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine) 1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow) Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra
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