can u guys check out this link and tell me what u think? www.aircars.tk
It is just not practical for all but a very few people. The range is just not there. If they are going to very high pressures, then the safety is not there without heavy extra strong tanks.
As I recall there are a small percentage of fork lifts using compressed air in sensitive areas.
When I was a young man, I had a job delivering balloon arrangements and decorating for parties. So I drove all over town with compressed helium tanks in my trunk. Then when I lived in a house with a bar, I kept tanks of compressed carbon dioxide for the soda gun. I had to put those in the car too to get them refilled. As a truck driver, I drove through much of this country with a brake system that used compressed air. So I am very comfortable with the idea of driving with compressed air as the method of storing energy. It should be no less safe than using a volatile compound like gasoline as a fuel. It is safe and viable now, as long as you take the same safety precautions as all the other people who have tanks of compressed gasses in or on their vehicles. You should get the tanks inspected regularly, but I am sure the owner’s manual for the air car will cover all of that.
Ron, The problem is the amount and pressure of the air that would be needed to provide power for even a very small car would require some extremely high pressures and large volumes of air.
Filling up balloons and propelling a car are two very different needs.
There will be lots of varied attempts at unseating the ICE as a power source. My hope is that no one of them takes hold but instead, technology is used appropriate to the ecology and economics of a particular area and use. The ICE may have a useful life, somewhere and with some applications for the next 100 years. Welcome to the aircar too or any devise that provides competition to oil powered vehicles.
Heck, a complete circle could be a fuel cell EV that converts a petro. based fuel to electricity.
I was unable to access the link, however I’m gathering from the responses that you’re talking about cars powered by compressed air. I did find this article from June 2007’s Popular Mechanics. I’ve not read anything further, so I’m going to assume it never came to fruition.
"India?s largest automaker is set to start producing the world?s first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N?gre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine?s pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets in August of 2008.
Barring any last-minute design changes on the way to production, the Air Car should be surprisingly practical. The $12,700 CityCAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units; MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car?s carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of air at 4350 psi. Drivers also will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car?s built-in compressor to refill the tanks in about 4 hours.
Of course, the Air Car will likely never hit American shores, especially considering its all-glue construction. But that doesn?t mean the major automakers can write it off as a bizarre Indian experiment ? MDI has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa."
The problem I see, and it is a biggie, is that air has no energy of it’s own for this type of use. Gasoline or Diesel fuel contains a tremendous amount of energy waiting to be released through combustion. The energy required to compress the volume of air needed to the pressure required for this purpose has to come from somewhere, and believe me, it would be a lot. There is no free lunch in physics. And if something goes wrong and that tank explodes, look out! A fuel tank that is not already stressed by 4350 PSI is a lot safer in the event of a collision, in my opinion.