The Air Car

Automobile that runs on compressed air

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Air
• car
• pneumatic
• engine
• evironment
• co2
• emission

[dickiedavies64]

You understand my comparison to a steam engine and coal as it "coal" is 95% the source of are power from stations but your moving one form of compression to power another you talk off alternatives to this solar geothermal ect but that wasnt the point i was trying to make .

[nanabijou62]

@dickiedavies64 I understand your point completely. But my point is that in this method of storing energy either by compressed air or by electricity, you can derive the electrical power using alternative methods. With an internal combustion engine, you just use up the energy from the fuel immediately by burning it. There is no storage of energy and using it later in a gas engine. Yes today, most of the electricity is produced by coal. Tomorrow... who knows?

[EnemyHero182]

Obviously the car would compress the air itself. You wouldnt be buying compressed air from a power station, thats just retarded> Technology like this already exists, its called the diesel engine. The diesel runs on compression rather than combustion. So yes it is possible to run a diesel on compressed air. The problem lies in reducing the blowoff the compressor valve has when its released.

[nanabijou62]

Your assessment of how a diesel engine works is somewhat flawed. Diesel and gasoline engines are both internal combustion engines. In gasoline engines the air/fuel mixture is ignited by an electrical spark, while in the diesel engine the fuel is ignited by the heat generated by compressing the air. Both rely on the expansion of the gases produced by the burning fuel. The motor in the air car uses compressed air itself to generate motion. Somewhat akin to a steam engine.

[dickiedavies64]

@nanabijou62 Burning of fuel to make steam pressure what fossil fuel is used to create the air pressure needed to run this motor, Coal again.

[nanabijou62]

@dickiedavies64 No need to use coal. The compressed air is just a means of storing energy ,somewhat like a battery. You could use hydro-electricity, solar, wind, or geothermal to generate the electricity to run the compressors.

[takotheoktopus]

My only issue with this concept is the level of noise that it produces.

[Charlieutube99]

This video was posted Oct 2007, so when at 4:53 the commentator says that the cars should be on sale by "next June", he is referring to June 2008.

Just like all of their many other announced introduction dates, MDI obviously didn't meet it.

MDI has never let an independent journalist actually test the operating range of their air cars. The only published test showed the MDI air car running out of air after only 7.22km or 4.5 miles.

[myguitardidyermom12]

This is a wonderful invention

[EnemyHero182]

yer but unlike a petrol engine, the air compression is far greater in a diesel. this expanding air pressure could be used rather than combustable vapours.

[EnemyHero182]

Compressors big enough to power a engine of that size blowoff with too much force for the intake to use, therefore wasting a lot of said energy. This could be easily overcome with some refinement. The manufacturers prey that people don't know about these things, so they'll never really understand how the application could be undertaken.