# Interesting new concept car-runs on compressed air

1. Jul 18, 2004

### pack-rat

Interesting new concept car-runs on compressed "air"

thoughts ?

2. Jul 18, 2004

### enigma

Staff Emeritus
I find it telling that the link to the 'thermodynamics' details is dead.

Who knows though. There is nothing that says that compressed air couldn't be used to power a car, it's just a matter of harvestable energy.

3. Jul 18, 2004

### Janitor

The website says: "Although a number dates have been released to the media in the past, the programme required some more time to complete."

That is usually not a good sign.

4. Jul 18, 2004

### chronon

So lets see if I've got this right. I don't know how much energy can be extracted from compressed gas, but my guess is PV/2. (Correct me if I'm horribly wrong) The tank is 100 litres $$(0.1m^3)$$ at 300 atmospheres $$(3.10^7 pascals)$$. That gives 1.5 megajoules of energy (less than half a kilowatt hour). A car battery can hold more than twice as much and a single litre of petrol gives more than ten times as much. They claim to be able to do 300 km, so thats 5000 J/km. When cycling I would expect to use about $$10^5 J/km$$. Must be an amazing design! :uhh:

5. Jul 18, 2004

### Ivan Seeking

Staff Emeritus
6. Jul 19, 2004

### pack-rat

Hi sry i am relatively new here. I didn't know this was posted here before.

7. Jul 21, 2004

### Rampantbaboon

it should probably work the same basic way as a steam engine, as that just heats wather to make compressed water vapor

8. Jul 24, 2004

### brewnog

And a petrol engine effectively does the same thing too, - heating air to compress it (in a roundabout kinda way), the resulting expansion driving a piston. The key difference is the way the air, steam or whatever, is given its energy.

9. Jul 24, 2004

### Averagesupernova

Many years ago I heard Paul Harvey hype such a thing. It was bragged up and was mentioned that it's emissions were non-existant. I thought it was goofy at the time and I still do. Energy of some sort is spent on compressing the air to begin with.

10. Jul 24, 2004

### jjrwilliams

using wing effect technology, what would be the best thrust motor. one that is in the front or in the back of the aircraft.
how could one get a higher level of flight from the use of wig technology?

11. Jul 24, 2004