Air Powered Car: Too Good to be True?
Air powered car is a car that uses a motor powered by compressed air. The car can be powered solely by air, or combined (as in a hybrid electric vehicle) with gasoline, diesel, ethanol, or an electric plant with regenerative braking. Air powered car are powered by motors fueled with compressed air, which is stored in a tank at high pressure such as 30 MPa. Rather than driving engine pistons with an ignited fuel-air mixture, an air powered car use the expansion of compressed air, in a similar manner to the expansion of steam in a steam engine. Storage tanks are often made of carbon-fiber for weight reduction while maintaining strength; if penetrated carbon fiber will crack but not produce shrapnel.
At first glance, the idea of air powered car seems almost too good to be true. Hybrid cars like Honda fuel cell cars once was underestimated but now it’s become trends. Basically we can use air as fuel. Air is all around us. Air never runs out. Air is nonpolluting. Best of all, air is free. Unfortunately, air alone can’t be used as a fuel. First, energy has to be stored in it by squeezing the air tightly using a mechanical air compressor. Once the compressed air is released, it expands. This expanding air can be used. The idea of using compressed air to power a vehicle isn’t new. There have been prototype cars since the 1920s, and compressed air has been used in torpedo propulsion as well.
India’s largest automaker is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air powered car. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre 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. 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 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 air powered car design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.
Air Powered Car
