Air powered car

[Adam]

Some of you may have seen this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSwlTqaM1oA

Seems so simple, it might just work You could replace the generator on a wind turbine with a small compressor (its cheaper energy to store )

[odbob]

Adam, I first heard about this car some years ago and was interested, lovely simple tech if works, I like your idea of producing compressed air from wind , much easier to provide than electricity from air, worth looking further into. Incidently, they are suggesting a much higher range of travel than previously thought possible, 200 K

[KenB]

Adam, Bob,

The technology behind this car is widely misquoted, as I have stated in an earlier post.

The BBC News report offered some very sketchy details, much of them based on misquoting entirely speculative figures.

When running solely on compressed air, the range is extremely limited, and last year, the website stated 7 miles.

The engine was originally based on the air-powered starter motors that the pit crews use for starting F1 racing cars.

The vehicle actually uses a development of an open cycle Ericsson cycle engine, a kind of hot air engine, to provide greater range.

Think of it like a steam engine, but running on heated air, which is expanded against a piston to provide mechanical power.   

The heat needed for the engine comes from burning any of the common liquid or gas fossil fuels. So its an air powered hybrid.  There is no engine data to suggest that the Ericsson engine  can perform any more efficiently than a small IC engine.

As a reality check, a small vehicle like this will need about 200Wh per mile (125Wh per kilometer) for propulsion.  The air car would need to carry at least 25kWh of compressed air in tanks to give it an air only range even approaching 200km.

It appears that since the announcement with Tata Motors,  the MDI website has been radically updated, and no longer shows any of the rather confused details of their engine technology - like it did a month ago.

I suspect, that they have tidied things up a little in order to eliminate some of the less than shining test data that the web site previously held.

Someone might care to use the internet wind-back facility to look at the old site.


I regret, but I suspect that this will run an run as being a result of investor hype and poor reporting lacking any scientific credibility.



Ken



 

[odbob]

Ken, thanks, I had noticed this massive increase in range, but I am very often willing to be convinced. ah well, just maybe another idea that should have remained in the text book!

[NickW]

It seems to me that any sort of practical compressed air car will need a source of heat for winter usage - I cant see people willing going back to unheated vehicles.

A small petrol. diesel, LPG burner could preheat the compressed air going into the engine extending its range - particularly in cold weather, and the remainder used as 'cabin heat'. I suspect the efficiency would be quite high.

I personally think there is allot more potential in compressed air than electric vehicles. the technology is simple and scaleable.

[dhaslam]

The battery car is about to take a big step forward at last.  Batteries with much better storage, longer life  and  faster charging are all on the way but perhaps not all in the one battery just yet.  One thing whicj may hellp sell battery cars now is that they can be upgraded with better batteries later.  The battery cars will have the same heating problem but since they are plugged in overnight  for charging there could be a  (lightweight) storage heater  built into the car for winter use.

[NickW]

The battery car is about to take a big step forward at last.  Batteries with much better storage, longer life  and  faster charging are all on the way but perhaps not all in the one battery just yet.  One thing whicj may hellp sell battery cars now is that they can be upgraded with better batteries later.  The battery cars will have the same heating problem but since they are plugged in overnight  for charging there could be a  (lightweight) storage heater  built into the car for winter use.

Dhaslam

The problem is if the batteries are lithium - the supply of lithium itself. Current production / reserves just don't scale up.

Ni-mh / lead acid / zinc air more scaleable but then we are back to the performance issue