World's First Air-Powered Car: Zero Emissions by Next Summer
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This is good news if any of you are by night, Indian Cab Drivers!
Well, are you? - Gaius - I'm looking your way!
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automot ... 17016.html
poster-shaun tennant
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Looks very promising. In fact the idea is age-old, as many good ideas. Air-powered locomotives were used in mines to reduce explosion risks.
Anssi
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Shaun
Why haven't I heard of this little marvel before? Dare I think "conspiracy theory"? - something that has dogged the development of anything that even looks like a competitor to the internal combustion engine.
If all I've read is true it will be a little humdinger! - especially the bit about using its cooled exhaust air to air-condition the interior.
One question I couldn't find an answer to, acknowledging its zero emitting claims, is how much energy does it take to compress the air 'fuel'? I would suspect that even if this is significant it would still be way ahead of our present gas guzzlers.
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Of course making the compressed air will consume energy, and there will be some energy loss as well. It's only a way of storing the energy needed for moving the car, like a battery. The ecological advantages will be none if the air is compressed using non-renewable energy sources (of course local air pollution will decrease)
Anssi
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The article above and other articles about it suggest that the refilling costs will likely be about $2. I presume that pays for the energy used to run a compressor and probably for the amortized capital costs of equipping existing gas stations with the necessary equipment + their overhead & profit. That $2 also suggests this whole concept is much more energy efficient than one based on conventional internal combustion engines. If it costs $2 for a quick-fill at a commercial fueling station, then it is likely it would require less than $2 worth of electricity at home using the slow refueling option of just plugging it in and letting the small on-board compressor refill it.
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Modelhead -- When this same topic came up earlier in the Google's SU forums (The thread is here) the article talked about how the system could use electricity to run the motor as a compressor or switched over so the compressed air could generate electricity. In that other thread I wrote about how maybe a variation on the systems could be developed to generate electricity from the tides. I was thinking about Canada's huge tides on our Bay of Fundy area near where I live.
edit- sorry this thread no longer exists on the old Google SketchUp Forum.
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