Cars that run on air

[dullard]

Compressors are loud and major energy hogs. Plugging it directly into the power grid uses less energy than powering a compressor to compress air to turn compressed air into power to run a car. In other words

Less: Electricity -> battery -> car
More: Electricity -> air compressor -> compressed air -> power -> car

The more steps, almost always, the more waste. And that generality is true in this case. Compressed air uses more fuel.

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Whats the big fuss about whether or not this uses less electricity than a battery charge? IMO the important part is that it only takes electricity which comes from wind turbines, dams, or coal. All of which are domestic and cleaner than petrol so it's an improvement either way. No foreign dependence ftw

We don't have enough turbines or dams and never will. We have plenty of coal. But, since we can easilly and cheaply turn coal into gasoline (at a final price competitive with ~$30-$40/barrel oil prices) that is what we should pursue as a country. Our energy money goes to our companies and our miners. We don't need to worry about foreign powers nearly as much. Plus, it is a tried and true technology. This company has been doing it profitably for nearly 70 years if I recall correctly.

 

[Kaolccips]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: Kaolccips
What do you think would use more electricity? Enough to run a compressor, or enough to charge a car that runs solely on electricity?

Running the compressor uses more energy. Charging batteries from the grid is 93% efficient. Compressing air is, at best 80% efficient.

ZV

Yes batteries will be more efficient at transferring the energy to the battery so less is lost. But if it takes less compressed air energy to run a car, then it wouldn't matter. As long as it is enough to make up for the 80% efficiency to fill it. Sorry I just woke up and I'm reallly hung over.. I'm finding it really hard to explain this lol Maybe someone will still get it though. Or maybe I'm thinking all wrong, who knows.

Does the energy, after converted to the battery, is it more energy efficient than electricity? I'm getting thats what being said but my brain is kinda w/e right now.. cause if the compressed air, after being filled, can use less energy to power it, enough to make up for the difference in the energy lost to fill it. Then it wouldn't really matter.

🙁 F*cking beer brain.. I know I'm going to re-read this and be like wtf..

Originally posted by: MrPickins
The warehouse cart is a good idea.

I seriously doubt the claims of the french car, though.
They said 200km on one refill of air? I doubt that. Not enough energy in compressed air.

Err.. I'm not sure I haven't seen the video in a bit.. but if you are refering to the part where he is talking about driving from NY to LA, he was talking about on 1 tank of gas. Not air. You would have to re-fill your air tanks I would assume, but you wouldn't have to fill up gas. That was for the country version or w/e that adds petrol to help compress the air. (Which maybe that would make up for some of the energy lost in compressing it?)

Less: Electricity -> battery -> car
More: Electricity -> air compressor -> compressed air -> power -> car

Ehh.. for some reason that seems a little bit off.. Why would air compressor - power be 3 steps? After the electricity goes to the air compressor that energy would then go straight to power.. it's not like it has to pause and use more energy to then compress the air, then convert the air to power. It's 1 step
Electricity -> air compressor (Which compressed air into tanks, thus going straight to "power") -> car

 

[heymrdj]

Can anyone just see "charging" it at night with your bedroom next to the garage. A compressor just running...and running...and running...and running....and running (4 hours) and running...and running...only to realise you have an air leak 😛.

And to anyone that says air is efficient, just look at my uncles Cmex plant. 8 giant 480 volt triple phase compressors..and multi thousand dollar a month electric bills just from those. Average bill for the compressors on a slow month is 1,300-1,700$, and on a busy month where they basically never turn off during on duty hours, 3-3,500$.

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: Kaolccips

There ya go. No need for electricity to power it, only to compress the air. Which wouldn't be near the amount of electricity than an electric car would take to charge.

Nice edit, but I still doubt it. A well designed battery system will be much more efficient, energy in to energy out, than a compressor. Touch a compressor next time it's running. Feel all that heat that just burned your skin off? That's wasted energy.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.dansdata.com/danletters171.htm

 

[potato28]

Batteries will kill this in all fields a car needs. Still, batteries and compressed air wouldn't run very efficiently at low temperatures.

 

[her209]

Mr. Fusion

 

[DangerAardvark]

A 2005 study demonstrated that cars running on lithium-ion batteries out-perform both compressed air and fuel cell vehicles more than three-fold at same speeds.[11] MDI has recently claimed that an air car will be able to travel 140km in urban driving , and have a range of 80 km with a top speed of 110km/h on highways [12], when operating on compressed air alone.

Seems like just another one of those feel-good technologies. "Oh look, my car is running on air! I'm an awesome person!" Though an 800 pound 4-passenger vehicle sounds interesting.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: DangerAardvark

A 2005 study demonstrated that cars running on lithium-ion batteries out-perform both compressed air and fuel cell vehicles more than three-fold at same speeds.[11] MDI has recently claimed that an air car will be able to travel 140km in urban driving , and have a range of 80 km with a top speed of 110km/h on highways [12], when operating on compressed air alone.

Seems like just another one of those feel-good technologies. "Oh look, my car is running on air! I'm an awesome person!" Though an 800 pound 4-passenger vehicle sounds interesting.

And this:
"Early tests have demonstrated the limited storage capacity of the tanks; the only published test of a vehicle running on compressed air alone was limited to a range of 7.22 km."

It'll get you to the store, but not back home again.

 

[BeauJangles]

Why would compressed air be a good intermediary? It doesn't store energy well at all.

 

[FlashG]

What's it going to use to provide heat and AC? Let alone power the radio/gps/wipers/defroster/etc!

 

[EMPshockwave82]

Originally posted by: Bignate603

Originally posted by: Kaolccips

There ya go. No need for electricity to power it, only to compress the air. Which wouldn't be near the amount of electricity than an electric car would take to charge.

Nice edit, but I still doubt it. A well designed battery system will be much more efficient, energy in to energy out, than a compressor. Touch a compressor next time it's running. Feel all that heat that just burned your skin off? That's wasted energy.

if you WATCH THE VIDEO you hear him make the claim that it's only about two dollars worth of electricity to fill the tanks.


to many other people.

WATCH THE BLOODY VIDEO

I'm not saying this scheme is possible as anything like this sounds too good to be true but jeebus people, at least make somewhat informed responses.

 

[txrandom]

Way to solve energy and obesity crisis:
-Gets lot of fat people on bikes.
-Bikes create electricity.
-Fat people get skinnier.
-Fat people don't need as much AC.
-Whee!

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Kaolccips

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: Kaolccips
What do you think would use more electricity? Enough to run a compressor, or enough to charge a car that runs solely on electricity?

Running the compressor uses more energy. Charging batteries from the grid is 93% efficient. Compressing air is, at best 80% efficient.

ZV

Yes batteries will be more efficient at transferring the energy to the battery so less is lost. But if it takes less compressed air energy to run a car, then it wouldn't matter. As long as it is enough to make up for the 80% efficiency to fill it. Sorry I just woke up and I'm reallly hung over.. I'm finding it really hard to explain this lol Maybe someone will still get it though. Or maybe I'm thinking all wrong, who knows.

Does the energy, after converted to the battery, is it more energy efficient than electricity? I'm getting thats what being said but my brain is kinda w/e right now.. cause if the compressed air, after being filled, can use less energy to power it, enough to make up for the difference in the energy lost to fill it. Then it wouldn't really matter.

The energy required to move a car of X weight with Y amount of drag is fixed, regardless of whether that energy comes from air, electricity, or gasoline. You don't make up for the inherent inefficiency of compressing air.

ZV

 

[Zenmervolt]

Oops. Didn't realise this was a resurrected thread.

ZV

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: Kaolccips

Less: Electricity -> battery -> car
More: Electricity -> air compressor -> compressed air -> power -> car

Ehh.. for some reason that seems a little bit off.. Why would air compressor - power be 3 steps? After the electricity goes to the air compressor that energy would then go straight to power.. it's not like it has to pause and use more energy to then compress the air, then convert the air to power. It's 1 step
Electricity -> air compressor (Which compressed air into tanks, thus going straight to "power") -> car

Every time you convert energy from one form to another, you lose some of it. More steps equals more loss.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: Kaolccips

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: Kaolccips
I replied in the electric car thread but I figured this needed a thread of its own for discussion.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4

There ya go. No need for electricity when it uses compressed air instead.
Takes 3 minutes to fill, or plug in at home and the cars compressor fills it in 4 hours.
AMAZING mileage. CHEAP car.
Only problem is it looks like shit... but seems like it would get rid of many of the problems you would come across with an electric car.

Thoughts?

Where does the compressed air come from?
A compressor, yes?
What powers the compressor?

What do you think would use more electricity? Enough to run a compressor, or enough to charge a car that runs solely on electricity?

When I said that I didn't mean it wouldn't require any kind of power consumption and just suck the air right out of the sky to power it by magical powers. Of course it will take electricity, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take even close to as much as it would to charge an electric car.

Why do you think that? You think storing energy as compressed air is more efficient than storing it in a battery?

 

[rgwalt]

Originally posted by: Kaolccips

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: Kaolccips
I replied in the electric car thread but I figured this needed a thread of its own for discussion.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4

There ya go. No need for electricity when it uses compressed air instead.
Takes 3 minutes to fill, or plug in at home and the cars compressor fills it in 4 hours.
AMAZING mileage. CHEAP car.
Only problem is it looks like shit... but seems like it would get rid of many of the problems you would come across with an electric car.

Thoughts?

Where does the compressed air come from?
A compressor, yes?
What powers the compressor?

What do you think would use more electricity? Enough to run a compressor, or enough to charge a car that runs solely on electricity?

When I said that I didn't mean it wouldn't require any kind of power consumption and just suck the air right out of the sky to power it by magical powers. Of course it will take electricity, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take even close to as much as it would to charge an electric car.

OP, compression is a very inefficient process. Plus, you are converting eletricity into compressor work (with all its losses), then using the compressed air to do mechanical work. Typically compressors like the one in your garage will run off an electric motor. So you are better off powering an electric motor directly with electricity.

Neat concept though.

R

 

[imported_Baloo]

Originally posted by: Kaolccips

Originally posted by: Scouzer
Imagine the explosion if a compressed air car hit a gasoline car at high speed. Boom.

Clearly you didn't watch the video. I thought the same thing at first, though the tanks are made with carbon fiber so a wreck would just split it, rather than cause it to explode.

It's that air EXPLOSIVELY expandng from the split tank that makes the explosion, clearly you do not understand physics.


Oh, and this has been tried before, like 100 years ago,. An internal combustion engine is more efficient than compressed air.

 

[Evadman]

This thread is why I have the Sig I do. Why is almost everyone retarded?

 

[herm0016]

Originally posted by: Baloo
clearly you do not understand physics.

I think this is the base of the issue.