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Car Powered by Compressed Air
gripperzipper writes "CNN reports that a Korean company created a small car powered by compressed air. ENERGINE created its PHEV, or Pneumatic-Hybrid Electric Vehicle, which uses a two-stroke compressed air engine for start, acceleration, and uphill climbs. The car switches to an electric motor when its speed reaches 20-25 km/h (32-40 mi/h). Although major auto manufacturers have invested heavily in gasoline hybrids, it will be interesting to see if a market will open for this type of vehicle." Update: 04/04 17:18 GMT by T : Reader Tapsu spotted the incongruity here, writing "Interesting post, but the speed conversion has gone wrong way: "20-25 km/h
(32-40 mi/h)". ... Thus the correct speed range in miles would be
something like 12-15 mi/h."
I hope it has an external refil port for the compressed air tank. This will be a great way to take advantage of stations that offer "Free Air" (and also, unfortunately, prompt a decrease in the number of stations offering "free air"...)
Here is another take on the same story, but with a little bit more science. The bottom line is there's no such thing as free energy... or lunch. You don't get owt for nowt. CNN needs to learn science
This technology will never go anywhere. I worked on a liquid nitrogen powered car at UNT, which is basically the same as this thing except the nitrogen can be stored more densely when it liquifies, at moderate pressures. Expanding the nitrogen requires a rack of heat exchangers on the roof. However, since all the energy is stored mechanically rather than chemically, the Joules/Kg is about 40x lower than than of gasoline. It's even less dense than batteries. About the only market for this technology would be indoors where exhaust fumes are not allowed. But an electric vehicle would do better.
Our car was a VW bug, had 9 hp, got 1/3 mpg in the summer, and once reached 30 mph.
In my (unsucessful) haste to be the first to point this error out, I missed pointing out the cause of the problem. There are roughly 1.6 km/mile. To convert km/hr to m/h, divide, do not multiply km * 1.6 (20*1.6=32).
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Yes, but it might be cheaper than a pure electric car because they they can get away with a less powerful motor and power controller. The motor charges up the air tank when the car is idling or braking. Then the compressed air is used for short bursts of extra power when needed like accelerating or climbing hills. Otherwise it's just like a battery electric car with a heavy, expensive battery pack.
This is old news. The Frenchies have been there and done it.
It's even been tried in African (same company).
The company's own website seems to have gone. I would be suprised if this wasn't because the company has also gone out of business.
Why does it only get on Slashdot when it's an American company?
Philip
Signatures are broken
My question is why does the engine still look like a gasoline engine with compression chambers, pistons, cylinders, and the works? Is that just like some clipart, or am I completely missing something?
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
If the Toshiba announcement about a better traction battery is correct. Electric motors can have practically an ideal torque/rpm curve, but the current demands for high starting torque are a problem. The holy grail is a battery which has effectively an enormous surface to the electrodes without corresponding fragility, and so can be quickly recharged and discharged. (Traction batteries currently have a long service life but relatively slow charge and discharge. Starter batteries have a fast discharge for starting but are fragile and do not deep discharge well). Such a battery would completely supersede the inefficient compress air/decompress air cycle. So whichever compressed air tools division of this Korean manufacturer came up with this job preservation scheme - forget it and retrain as battery engineers.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
the dude that invented that vehicle (Guy Nègre, whom that I talked to at the paris car show a couple years ago) received death threats from unknown people that called him at night and stuff...
I'm for that. Dropping oil because it's expensive (and sooner or later it will be) is a lot better reason than dropping oil because we care more about vague environmental dangers than we do about human prosperity. Frankly, I think peak of oil production is at least ten years in the future (though not much more). A lot depends on how much oil reserves in OPEC countries have been distorted and how much new oil can be discovered and exploited. The current price of oil, adjusted for inflation has gone up. This may indeed be the peak. But I expect oil will stabalize at a new level until reserves available at that price start to get depleted.
I spent yesterday afternoon farting about with a Air Hogs Firestormer. The plane makes a faring noise which adds to the fun we had!
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
This isn't a new concept at all. I read about a guy in South Africa who built one of these about five years ago. Supposedly he even received death threats from oil company gangsters. Check it out
From a purely pragmatic perspective: I prefer a nice (nearly) pollution free city full of air/electro/whatever cars to many hundreds of stinking cars driving by my house every few hours.
So it's not totally green. Agreed. But it's a start in the right direction.
In my opinion midsized communal heating power stations are a good step forward to make that happen. They burn the fuel more efficiently and use the excess heat too. They come in ranges from 20 to 300 kW and cover most types of smaller to midsized buildings. They can even be used as a central power/heat station for a small residental area.
So, the pollution gets relocated BUT at the same time the system gets more efficient.
Meme of the day: I browse "Disable Sigs: Checked". So should you.
I was in a east-european car (Shkoda) when the gasoline pupm exploded, causing the back of the car (where the engine is located) to burst into flames. I was sitting at the back seat, with my parents at the front. I didn't hear it explode, but my father said he did. We just saw the car slow down, my father pulled over, I turned my head back and saw the flames through the back window, opened the door and, following the example of the brave Rincewind, ran my ass off forward. My parents stepped out of the car, the inflamable parts of the engine burning, stopped another vehicle and used a big fire extinguisher to put the fire out (we were lucky that the fire had melted one of the back lights, so they used the opening to spray the fire-extinguishing stuff inside).
Well, the car didn't explode, although it was filled up with gasoline just a few minutes before the accident. The back part of it (where the engine was) was badly burned, but the tyres, the seats and everything else was intact; maybe that has something to do with the fact that the fuel tanks are at the front of the car, under the front seats. Major parts of the engine had to be replaced, as well as new painting was needed. But we were towed all the way to our destination, and we had to leave the car for one year at my grandparent's yard. The car is still in motion today. I can't remember the exact year that happened, but it was easter, and it was sometime at the beginning of the 90s. I guess that made us all a little religious.
Then, of course, I could show off showing the molten back light to my peers.
Although this morning I rode in sitting on a 20 gallon tank of gas- how many meters could that raise a fire truck in the air? If you want to store portable energy- there is going to be some inherient form of danger involved. Batteries are acidic- gas is flamable- etc. What is interesting is the hydrogren appears to be the safest despite the PR problem. If there is a tank rupture- the hydrogen rises (lighter than air)- and will it it does ignite- will do so above your head. If not- it will turn to water and rain on you. If a gasoline tank ruptures and ignites- it is below your car. It also stays there until someone strikes a match or cleans it up.
Compressed air seems like a nice compromise. Does anyone know how loud it would be? I imagine it would sound a heck of a whole lot like my air tools...
We've talked about an aircar here before. The Korean model is a hybrid, this one the Aircar just uses the compressed air tank.
One perceived advantage of compressed air over batteries is that it can be refilled a lot faster than a battery bank can be recharged.(yes I saw the exception those new lions mentioned with the one minute recharge, that's pretty recent though). Some others are the tank itself is significantly lighter than batteries, probably much cheaper to make as well and doesn't have a lot of toxicity to it as batteries do. Another would be cycles of filling, I wouldn't expect it to wear out near as fast as batteries would.
All these various designs and techniques have plusses and minuses to them. Sort of like the early computer days with a plethora of hardware and differing OSes, etc. One of my pet ideas for this deal of having a high mileage cleaner car is to have a pure electric for the commuter car part, for extended range on trips just attach a trailer where a small diesel generator is located, turning the car into a "hybrid". That way most of the time you don't need to be hauling around two motors inside the vehicle, which the hybrids do, the electric motor and the fuel burning engine. Most of the time it could be recharged at your house overnight, ready to go back in the morning, and if you combined this with some solar panels at home (whatever alt energy do dad you like), it would eventually get to pretty cheap per mile to drive. You could "store" your juice during the day while you are gone back into the grid in those places that mandate netmetering, or have your own battery bank at home to plug into.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yeah,
But it will be more cost effective to have one BIG fuel motor, than dozen of small ones on the streets. You can even use Biodiesel to harm even less the environment...
Also, you can use electrical motors to compress the air... mind you that most of the electricity produced here at Brasil comes from hidrelectrical power plants that consumes zero fuel.
This air cars have been around for years, and they are a wonderfull idea. But we wont see them on the streets as long as companies like Exxon, Shell, Halliburton, Texaco and etc. exist.
---- You know how some doctors have the Messiah complex - they need to save the world? You've got the "Rubik's" complex
Neocons are children who don't want their toys taken away, and won't clean their room because it isn't fun.
Thank you for recognizing that the distinction between the present domanant "neo-conservative" group think party in the US and true conservatives. True conservatives wouldn't have bought the toys in the first place (we're compulsive savers) and wouldn't have let the room get messy for fear of unspecified adverse consequences. True conservatives (I know, I am one) are more likely to avoid doing things because they are fun (on the principle that the more atractive the lure, the more likely it is to be bait).
--MarkusQ
http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/035.html
Ok, so it's not exactly a daily commuter, but still remarkably impressive.....
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
Guess why the fastest trains are all electric?
Many ships are moving to electric engines as well. This allows a shorter shaft as you can place the engine directly in the pod where the propeller is, reducing transmission losses. They are usually big enough that you can put your own electric power plant in them (fuel turbines will do fine) and still save space.
Some commercial ships use these already. The US Navy is funding projects for using this in surface ships, the US Army is funding projects for using this in heavy tanks.
An electric engine can provide force to move a vehicle forward as well as braking. They are compact, have few moving parts, low maintenance and are well understood. The only problem is how to get the electricity to it. Prius solves that by adding a compact combustion engine to the mix.
The type of gas was irrelevant as any high pressure tank would have taken the same trip.
That's the difference though. Compressed gas like propane is stored at relatively low pressure. Not so bad. Compressed air like your scuba tank is held at like 3000 to 5000 PSI. That's a crap-load of pressure wanting to get out.