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."

Comments

Still energy

[Zorilla]

But does it take more electricity to compress the air into the tank than it does to just run the car on electric power? Sounds like just another degree of separation from energy we'll be getting from oil, anyway.

Re:Still energy

[FluffyPanda]

Not in china, there you can pay 20 small children and a man with a whip to squeeze balloons all day for less than the cost of a sack of coal.

Re:Still energy

[homer_ca]

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.

Re:Still energy

[Havenwar]

Really strong children.

Re:Still energy

[kfg]

Electric engines have the disadvantage of having little power. . .

Beg pardon? Not to mention the fact that their torque curves are the stuff that give drag racers wet dreams.

The only disadvantage electric motors have over combustion engines of any kind is, well, that they run on electricity, which has to come from somewhere.

Which turns out to be rather inconvenient.

The compressed air booster is just one way of finding some sort of dodge around the whole battery issue, and I'm not convinced it's a good one. A true hybrid seems a better solution to me, although it lacks the politically correct advantage of hiding its energy use and emissions from public view.

Bear in mind that I'm actually quite fond of compressed gas engines and have actually built a few small ones, just for my personal enjoyment and edification, but I haven't, outside of the realm of entertainment, found any problem for which they are the solution.

KFG

Re:Still energy

[Havenwar]

Really big sacks.

Perfect for us!

[Dancin_Santa]

This website provides the perfect fuel for this car.

But I'm probably just repeating the first several dozen comments...

Don't Crash!

[nacturation]

From the manual:

"Should you find yourself approaching the state of being in an accident, please yourself to duck so as to avoid looking at your previously attached body before the shrapnel took off your head." (Safety tips, Appendix A, P.232)

Nothing But Hot Air

[pressesc]

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

Re:Say goodbye to free air

[Rei]

The compressed air from a gas station could barely provide any stored energy.

Compressed air has great power density, but awful energy density. I.e., you can unload power incredibly quickly from it, but can't store much at all. Even batteries store far more energy in a given mass. This sounds like a big step in the wrong direction, honestly.

Conversion Factors

[Ray Radlein]

The car switches to an electric motor when its speed reaches 20-25 km/h (32-40 mi/h).

Now we know why this car keeps crashing into Mars.

No, they're not.

[Gordonjcp]

Lots of cars and vans in the UK and EU are powered by LPG. They're not dangerous. The tank can't burst, and there is a check valve on the outlet regulator block similar to the valve on the gas meter in your house that prevents gas escaping if the outlet is left open.

They are far safer in a fire, too. If there is an overpressure in the cylinder, the gas is slowly vented, where it burns. With a petrol tank, as the fuel heats up the pressure rises until the tank bursts (because they're either plastic or thin steel).

Already Been Done!

[phobos13013]

A completely compressed air vehicle has been made before and is a production model called the air car by a company MDI in italy. They have produced models for street use, you can see a video of it here.

Re:Your local station's pump isn't nearly enough

[morzel]

You've obviously never seen a scuba tank explode.

Energy density on these things may not be that high, but they can release all of it in a fraction of second. On top of that, if it goes, it will send fragments of the tank like shrapnell all over the place. I wouldn't want to be sitting in the car where such a tank explodes.
Or more detailed: I wouldn't want to be sitting in any car where anything explodes (outside the confines of the explosion engine, of course ;-)