Behold the CityCAT air car, powered by compressed air.

[Useful Info]

Read all about it, here: http://Muvy.org

 

[Michael Pardee]

Read all about it, here: http://Muvy.org

More spam by the tinfoil hat site. Gotta say, they advertise the normal stuff and leave teh weird subjects until you actually look at the site.

Mike

 

[Michael Pardee]

Read all about it, here: http://Muvy.org

More spam by the tinfoil hat site. Gotta say, they advertise the normal stuff and leave teh weird subjects until you actually look at the site.

Mike

 

[Hachiroku $B%O%A%m% (B]

More spam by the tinfoil hat site. Gotta say, they advertise the normal stuff and leave teh weird subjects until you actually look at the site.

Mike

Gee...at my age, I have plenty of...uh "compressed air". Maybe I ought to look into one of these!

 

[Hachiroku $B%O%A%m% (B]

More spam by the tinfoil hat site. Gotta say, they advertise the normal stuff and leave teh weird subjects until you actually look at the site.

Mike

Gee...at my age, I have plenty of...uh "compressed air". Maybe I ought to look into one of these!

 

[Jeff (2)]

Uncrossposted.

Gee...at my age, I have plenty of...uh "compressed air". Maybe I ought to look into one of these!

You shouldn't be around my nephew. He's seven. I guarantee you he doesn't have much compressed air. He lets it out all the time.

Age has nothing to do with it.

Jeff

 

[Jim Yanik]

Uncrossposted.

You shouldn't be around my nephew. He's seven. I guarantee you he doesn't have much compressed air. He lets it out all the time.

Age has nothing to do with it.

Jeff

That aint "air". ;-)

(it's a greenhouse gas!)

 

[Fishface (archive)]

More spam by the tinfoil hat site. Gotta say, they advertise the normal stuff and leave teh weird subjects until you actually look at the site.

So, skip right to the source:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4
A "Beyond Tomorrow" segment, worth the watch.

 

[Fishface (archive)]

More spam by the tinfoil hat site. Gotta say, they advertise the normal stuff and leave teh weird subjects until you actually look at the site.

So, skip right to the source:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4
A "Beyond Tomorrow" segment, worth the watch.

 

[Jeff (2)]

So, skip right to the source:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4
A "Beyond Tomorrow" segment, worth the watch.

I think for things like the fork lifts, as well as lawn mowers, it is a great thing. It really get rid of fumes and will really help the environment. All you're doing is taking energy in one form and putting it in another. I could be wrong, but I don't see how it will increase fuel efficiency that much. Effectively, you're just making the CO2 at the electric power plant rather in the car engine (assuming the air is compressed with electric motors).

I think it has many advantages like weight. And it is probably more reliable. I mean far fewer parts to break. But, I would have to see the evidence that it is really that much more efficient to believe it.

Jeff

 

[Jeff (2)]

So, skip right to the source:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4
A "Beyond Tomorrow" segment, worth the watch.

I think for things like the fork lifts, as well as lawn mowers, it is a great thing. It really get rid of fumes and will really help the environment. All you're doing is taking energy in one form and putting it in another. I could be wrong, but I don't see how it will increase fuel efficiency that much. Effectively, you're just making the CO2 at the electric power plant rather in the car engine (assuming the air is compressed with electric motors).

I think it has many advantages like weight. And it is probably more reliable. I mean far fewer parts to break. But, I would have to see the evidence that it is really that much more efficient to believe it.

Jeff

 

[Michael Pardee]

I think for things like the fork lifts, as well as lawn mowers, it is a great thing. It really get rid of fumes and will really help the environment. All you're doing is taking energy in one form and putting it in another. I could be wrong, but I don't see how it will increase fuel efficiency that much. Effectively, you're just making the CO2 at the electric power plant rather in the car engine (assuming the air is compressed with electric motors).

Worse than that, air (and most gases that have low boiling points) are not very "elastic." Air has a ratio of specific heats of around 1.4, so about 1/3 of the energy is lost just to the compression and expansion. Batteries can do a lot better. The compressed air has to be used at raw pressure - that's the point, after all - and it is very difficult to make motors that can maintain efficiency over the range of pressures necessary to make the system work. It's much more like charging a giant, lossy capacitor. I'd be shocked at getting anything near 50% overall efficiency, something EVs do with ease.

Mike

 

[Michael Pardee]

I think for things like the fork lifts, as well as lawn mowers, it is a great thing. It really get rid of fumes and will really help the environment. All you're doing is taking energy in one form and putting it in another. I could be wrong, but I don't see how it will increase fuel efficiency that much. Effectively, you're just making the CO2 at the electric power plant rather in the car engine (assuming the air is compressed with electric motors).

Worse than that, air (and most gases that have low boiling points) are not very "elastic." Air has a ratio of specific heats of around 1.4, so about 1/3 of the energy is lost just to the compression and expansion. Batteries can do a lot better. The compressed air has to be used at raw pressure - that's the point, after all - and it is very difficult to make motors that can maintain efficiency over the range of pressures necessary to make the system work. It's much more like charging a giant, lossy capacitor. I'd be shocked at getting anything near 50% overall efficiency, something EVs do with ease.

Mike

 

[Dan G]

Worse than that, air (and most gases that have low boiling points) are not very "elastic." Air has a ratio of specific heats of around 1.4, so about 1/3 of the energy is lost just to the compression and expansion. Batteries can do a lot better. The compressed air has to be used at raw pressure - that's the point, after all - and it is very difficult to make motors that can maintain efficiency over the range of pressures necessary to make the system work. It's much more like charging a giant, lossy capacitor. I'd be shocked at getting anything near 50% overall efficiency, something EVs do with ease.

Mike

Nevertheless, this type of thinking is what will save us from fossil fuels. The compressed air cars are doing pretty well, and if you use solar power to charge them up, it's free energy. The car I saw on NG channel, (maybe Discovery), was still in development, but the engine was also able to be the compressor, and he was developing an electric motor to make the car self-contained. If the technology was pushed to it's limits, it could do a lot better. Hey, if you put the car in reverse, and roll forward down a hill, it'll charge it's own tanks!

Batteries are very very bad for the environment.

 

[Dan G]

Worse than that, air (and most gases that have low boiling points) are not very "elastic." Air has a ratio of specific heats of around 1.4, so about 1/3 of the energy is lost just to the compression and expansion. Batteries can do a lot better. The compressed air has to be used at raw pressure - that's the point, after all - and it is very difficult to make motors that can maintain efficiency over the range of pressures necessary to make the system work. It's much more like charging a giant, lossy capacitor. I'd be shocked at getting anything near 50% overall efficiency, something EVs do with ease.

Mike

Nevertheless, this type of thinking is what will save us from fossil fuels. The compressed air cars are doing pretty well, and if you use solar power to charge them up, it's free energy. The car I saw on NG channel, (maybe Discovery), was still in development, but the engine was also able to be the compressor, and he was developing an electric motor to make the car self-contained. If the technology was pushed to it's limits, it could do a lot better. Hey, if you put the car in reverse, and roll forward down a hill, it'll charge it's own tanks!

Batteries are very very bad for the environment.

 

[Michael Pardee]

Nevertheless, this type of thinking is what will save us from fossil fuels. The compressed air cars are doing pretty well, and if you use solar power to charge them up, it's free energy. The car I saw on NG channel, (maybe Discovery), was still in development, but the engine was also able to be the compressor, and he was developing an electric motor to make the car self-contained. If the technology was pushed to it's limits, it could do a lot better. Hey, if you put the car in reverse, and roll forward down a hill, it'll charge it's own tanks!

Batteries are very very bad for the environment.

The physics of the technology pretty much cap the energy storage efficiency at 50% max, and it's going to be hard to break the 35% barrier. The ratio of specific heats problem (the same thing that makes a basketball "deader" than a superball) won't go away as long as this universe is in existence. Adaptive air motors are possible but always tricky. Using only the "top half" of the pressure charge means hauling around a lot of dead weight.

Batteries don't have to be bad for the environment at all. The heavy metals that are most to blame for batteries' bad rep are completely recyclable. The larger batteries get the less likely they will escape the recycling stream; even standard car batteries are rarely dumped any more.

Air powered cars have been around longer than electric cars - there are reasons they haven't caught on. In a time when efficiency is seen as more important than ever, the inherent inefficiency of compressed air makes this a tough sell.

Mike

 

[Michael Pardee]

Nevertheless, this type of thinking is what will save us from fossil fuels. The compressed air cars are doing pretty well, and if you use solar power to charge them up, it's free energy. The car I saw on NG channel, (maybe Discovery), was still in development, but the engine was also able to be the compressor, and he was developing an electric motor to make the car self-contained. If the technology was pushed to it's limits, it could do a lot better. Hey, if you put the car in reverse, and roll forward down a hill, it'll charge it's own tanks!

Batteries are very very bad for the environment.

The physics of the technology pretty much cap the energy storage efficiency at 50% max, and it's going to be hard to break the 35% barrier. The ratio of specific heats problem (the same thing that makes a basketball "deader" than a superball) won't go away as long as this universe is in existence. Adaptive air motors are possible but always tricky. Using only the "top half" of the pressure charge means hauling around a lot of dead weight.

Batteries don't have to be bad for the environment at all. The heavy metals that are most to blame for batteries' bad rep are completely recyclable. The larger batteries get the less likely they will escape the recycling stream; even standard car batteries are rarely dumped any more.

Air powered cars have been around longer than electric cars - there are reasons they haven't caught on. In a time when efficiency is seen as more important than ever, the inherent inefficiency of compressed air makes this a tough sell.

Mike

 

[Eeyore]

So, skip right to the source:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4
A "Beyond Tomorrow" segment, worth the watch.

Seen it before.

It just shows how easy it is to pull the wool over the eyes of TV reporters.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

So, skip right to the source:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4
A "Beyond Tomorrow" segment, worth the watch.

Seen it before.

It just shows how easy it is to pull the wool over the eyes of TV reporters.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

Nevertheless, this type of thinking is what will save us from fossil fuels.

No it won't.

They are *less* efficient that EVs, so need MORE energy to keep them running.

The compressed air cars are doing pretty well,

Where exactly ? Except in your fantasies ?

and if you use solar power to charge them up, it's free energy.

Damn you're an ignorant prick of the first order. Use the same cutesy 'solar energy' in EVs and you'll easily go *TWICE* as far - probably more since EVs can reclaim energy by regenerative braking.

Graham