[Syeer]

I thought about running a car on air several years ago after having bought one of the pneumatic piston engine powered AirHogs. Went out and bought a similar engine from a different toy(lol) company and studied them both for a good while. In the end I didn't think very highly of the idea of running cars off of airpowered engines.

It might be a good idea for extremely small vehicles, like maybe economy sized motorcycles, or scooters, though.

[KevO]

Seeing as even Matt Simmons says that 70% of all oil used is in transportation, look what they rolled out yesterday!
Seriously this could be the thing that ends the peak oil debate.
What will Saviner, Kuntsler and Rupert and other PO messiahs make of this??

"March 19, 2007 Many respected engineers have been trying for years to bring a compressed air car to market, believing strongly that compressed air can power a viable "zero pollution" car. Now the first commercial compressed air car is on the verge of production and beginning to attract a lot of attention, and with a recently signed partnership with Tata, India’s largest automotive manufacturer, the prospects of very cost-effective mass production are now a distinct possibility"

pictures and full article
HERE!!!!

{thread subject edited for clarity by Shannymara}

[KevO]

also from (3 pages)
http://gizmag.com/go/7000/
is
"Most importantly, it is incredibly cost-efficient to run – according to the designers, it costs less than one Euro per 100Km (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving), a factor which makes a perfect choice in cities where the 80% of motorists drive at less than 60Km. The car has a top speed of 68 mph.

Refilling the car will, once the market develops, take place at adapted petrol stations to administer compressed air. In two or three minutes, and at a cost of approximately 1.5 Euros, the car will be ready to go another 200-300 kilometres.

As a viable alternative, the car carries a small compressor which can be connected to the mains (220V or 380V) and refill the tank in 3-4 hours.

Due to the absence of combustion and, consequently, of residues, changing the oil (1 litre of vegetable oil) is necessary only every 50,000 Km.

The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0 - 15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.

How does it work?

90m3 of compressed air is stored in fibre tanks. The expansion of this air pushes the pistons and creates movement. The atmospheric temperature is used to re-heat the engine and increase the road coverage. The air conditioning system makes use of the expelled cold air. Due to the absence of combustion and the fact there is no pollution, the oil change is only necessary every 31.000 miles."



wow! the only oil needed id the engine oil, no need for gas!
This will be a winner as it will be trotted out as a cure for climate change but this car could push peak back 30 years and in 30 years, we won't need oil, just air, wind, sun and waves
Shame really that we've already past peak as this car may well have been our saviour (and the death of BIG OIL)

[MacG]

Would sure be nice to have, but people are a bit obsessed with personal transport, and tend to belive that the most important role for oil is to ferry them around according to any whim they come up with.

Call me when they have heavy trucks, tractors and excavators running on compressed air.

[Aaron]

Baby HawkMan is crying.

[Heineken]

Too bad compressing air to such densities requires so much energy.

Also, how are we going to run the interstate trucking system on vehicles the size of peas?

[KevO]

Would sure be nice to have, but people are a bit obsessed with personal transport, and tend to belive that the most important role for oil is to ferry them around according to any whim they come up with.

Call me when they have heavy trucks, tractors and excavators running on compressed air.

It's easy to sort. The remaining oil goes into the mass production of these cars, for the whole world. Meanwhile goverments tax oil cars so much that they just disappear (check what the UK gov is going to do to 'gas guzzlers' this very week. Double their tax over smaller cars to approx $800 a year).
Trucks and tractors also continue running on oil for now (as the military machine always will btw)

What I'm saying is, if it wasn't for the fact that it's already too late as we've passed peak, these little cars would have put peak back by 30 years and freed up the oil still drilled which could have fuelled the trucks and tractors and the manufacture of a trillion wind turbines and a trillion solar panels and a billion wave machines and thousands of nuke stations until when it had run out, these solar/nuke/wind/wave would be self generating the next batch etc.

Sad the car wasn't rolled out 5 years ago, it might have been the Holy Grail. Of course for those of you that think we aren't at peak until 2010.........................

[Newsseeker]

I believe there is a saying about the road to hell being paved with the....

A solution to peak oil is not going to sneak up on us. The basic problem is energy and it is not something that easy to come by. There may be a lot of ideas that are interesting but can they take a fleet of perhaps 210-240 million vehicles and retrofit them with spiffy pollution-free wonder engines? Harken and hear what the Apostle Savinar says, "TechnoMessiahs are not going to save us."

[Gazzatrone]

As you point out, 30 years ago this would have saved us and Peak wouldn't even be considered, as I'm sure oil would have ceased to be used. But for mass production for a new product entering an already harsh market, consider...

It has taken 100 years of motoring and use of Earths resources to reach a Global Car Population of approximately 600 million, with (if we have past peak and you throw in EROEI) probably 10 years at best of oil remaining.

Yep another case of To much To little To late.

[onequestionwonder]

One very useful thing the motor and storage tank for this thing could do is to provide a way to store energy from home power generation.

Lead acid batteries aren't super longlasting, I would imagine this would beat them in every way but bulkiness (though weight would be beat).

Anyone ever seen an analysis of using compressed air as an energy storage medium from an efficiency standpoint?

[vision-master]

The oil companies will put a stop to it!

[MacG]

Sad the car wasn't rolled out 5 years ago, it might have been the Holy Grail.

No, it would not. Under our current economic system, a more efficient car would have one and only one consequence -> More cars and more driving. If not here it will happen in Chindia.

[dukey]

either shell or exxon are running adds on tv here (uk) basically saying
don't worry we will find new ways of finding oil

Strange way to advertise your business

[Olle]

Compressing air and then using that preassure to drive things is not new. Compressed air tools has been around since Flintstone.

The problem is that it is so extremely energy inefficient. Worse than the ICE

Read the article again

"As a viable alternative, the car carries a small compressor which can be connected to the mains (220V or 380V) and refill the tank in 3-4 hours."

If there was no loss in energy (and trust me there is...), this would mean a maximum of 6-8 kWh of energy in the vehicle and that should be enough for 10 hours of driving? OK if it got like 0,5hp then maybe the maths adds up...

I am tech optimist and I do not believe in any big problems from peak oil in the developped world, but this is not a sollution to anything. Even if we switched to this kind of vehicles and it worked we would use MORE energy and not less

[vision-master]

How's that baby gonna work in -20 degree weather?

[lawnchair]

"Zero Pollution"? Maybe in BC and Quebec, where there's hydro. Otherwise, even nuclear power pollutes in the construction, mining, and enrichment processes. Aircars still need roads, new tires, etc.

I don't see the Parents of Nerf standing still for the inevitable smashups between these "glued fiberboard" aircars and the semis and SUVs on the road today. Expect calls for size segregation (a la the Trans-Texas Corridor).

If we can generate that much more electricity, and run that much more copper to distribute it, maybe we could electrify more than 1% of the US rail system.

[retiredguy]

That 's the first thing that I thought of. Gonna be pretty cold inside when the temp is below zero outside. Takes me back to the days of the air-cooled VW. The real problem is condensation on the windshield. Without a heater, there is no way to disperse it.

[FoxV]

How's that baby gonna work in -20 degree weather?

This was my first question when I read it. Here we are in our typical Canuck spring, and its -10C outside (rising to +5C this afternoon).

The problem is that it is so extremely energy inefficient. Worse than the ICE

I heard that a compressor was around 10% efficient. But even that aside, Compressed air is still a heat engine. So that means 33% efficiency when filling the tank, then 33% efficiency when using the tank.

hmm, .33 X .33 = .10, or 10% overall efficiency. Well who'd a thunked it.

[MattSavinar]

Seeing as even Matt Simmons says that 70% of all oil used is in transportation, look what they rolled out yesterday!
Seriously this could be the thing that ends the peak oil debate.
What will Saviner, Kuntsler and Rupert and other PO messiahs make of this??

"March 19, 2007 Many respected engineers have been trying for years to bring a compressed air car to market, believing strongly that compressed air can power a viable "zero pollution" car. Now the first commercial compressed air car is on the verge of production and beginning to attract a lot of attention, and with a recently signed partnership with Tata, India’s largest automotive manufacturer, the prospects of very cost-effective mass production are now a distinct possibility"

pictures and full article
HERE!!!!

I'd say you have to be a dumbass with no energy literacy to fall for this.

Dr. Foolioso, tell all us lowly doomers what it takes to compress the air?

[KevO]

Dr. Foolioso, tell all us lowly doomers what it takes to compress the air?

There's no shortage of rather fuckin large Americans, that could do squats on balloons