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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