Air Car (2 of 2) from Australia

A rotary engine runs on compressed air. Part 2 of 2. See the first part at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-A3XHFT5qc

See also http://www.engineair.com.au/

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Pneumatic
• rotary
• engine
• runs
• on
• compressed
• air
• Australia
• wankle

[ben210ben]

the only bad thing about electric cars is that it takes them so long to recharge so say you were to use a solar panel to recharge a battery at home. the you could use that energy to refil your air tanks in like 3 mins problem solved? no co2 for energy. or would this idea just not work?

[cplai]

@ben210ben Your idea would not work if you consider the rate of production vs. the rate of consumption given the maximum surface area of the solar panels you can install on the car. So you may be able to fully charge up the battery with 8 hours of sunshine and then the same amount of energy is only enough to push the car for 2 miles. It is a different story with a roof top solar panel, 8 hours of sunshine may charge enough energy for 50 miles. The size of the panel matters.

[mikehanoo33]

So instead of certain people spending so much time and effort trying to demonize clean energy systems and complain about how utterly wasteful it would be to use these inefficient systems ( even though air powered engines were commercially successful for many years ) how about spending that energy and time trying to improve existing technology and promoting honest technology , even if it goes outside of the box a little here and there , it all has to start somewhere , why not here ?

[mikehanoo33]

@Karouomo The energy potential of tidal basins is large — the largest facility, the La Rance station in France, generates 240 megawatts of power. Wind Energy Center in Texas. This wind farm has 421 wind turbines that generate a total capacity of 735 megawatts.Nine parabolic trough plants, totaling over. 350 megawatts (MW) of electric generation, have been in daily operation in the California Mojave Desert . WE DON'T HAVE TO USE DIRTY FUEL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HyperSTAND]

this isnt brand new technology. This basically using steam engine...

[johnnytheprick]

@mikehanoo33

of course we do, how else will the rich get richer? sheeeeeeeesh

[DraRed73]

Hi Traqr, that is what I meant. Cutting out the production of electricity to then turn into compressed gas and instead compressing the gas onsite. This would produce significant reductions in lost energy. Of course, there are always downsides...

Cheers, Dale

[Traqr]

@DraRed73 I know, but your comment was "At present the creation of electricity comes mainly from heating water to make steam, ie creating a pressurised gas. Why take that gas and turn it into electricity with all the associated inefficiencies rather than store the compressed gas and use that directly. Far more efficient.", which is hard to do when the compressed gas (steam) would soon condense. Perhaps you meant a mechanical, steam driven compressor? Did I misinterpret you?

[DraRed73]

@Traqr

Hi Traqr, it has been a long time since I saw this clip and posted but from memory it is based on compressed air. There is no technical challenge to maintain the air pressure that was created from a steam driven process as the steam cools and condenses.

Cheers, Dale

[Traqr]

@OhNoItsJoana No, a large high pressure tank can fill it in three minutes. The compressor took four hours. I'm too sleepy to double-check my math right now, but it looks like 200 litres of air at 300bar is roughly equal to one litre of diesel fuel for raw potential energy. I don't see how this energy equation can work, though anyone who's handled air tools will tell you that the POWER density is incomparable!

[Traqr]

@DraRed73 As soon as the steam cools down, it stops being steam. You need to use it while it's still hot.

[OhNoItsJoana]

@cplai No way. We could just put the compressor inside the car next to the motor (since it's so small) and stop at the gas station, connect the compressor to the plug (also used to charge battery cars), wait 3 minutes and it's done!

I think the main problems is petrol being so deep in our economics. It would revolutionize the world.