is this the future for green transport

[NickInTheNorth]

A car that runs on compressed air? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7241909.stm)

[Riffman]

They only shift the problem of pollution....

You still have to power the compressors somehow.


I personally would not be too keen on a car like that. You would need very high pressures to make it go anywhere, probably in the region of 350BAR.

Would I want tanks at that pressure in my car? No thanks! [lol]

[bekisman]

They say there's not much new under the sun;..100 years ago.
"..the vehicles themselves carried a compressed-air reservoir. Air from the reservoir was simply used to drive cylinders in the same fashion as the steam from the boiler of a regular locomotive. Streetcar lines were operated on this system in several cities in Europe and the US. In the French city of Nantes, compressed-air streetcars were used continuously from 1879 to 1917. But their greatest use was in Paris, where they served as many as 9 routes simultaneously; 179 double-decker compressed-air cars were built and operated there from 1894 until 1914. The later models of these cars were charged with 530 pounds (weight) of air compressed into about 95 cubic feet: 80 atmospheres of pressure. The compressed-air storage was under the floor, and the air had to be heated before use, to keep the cylinders from freezing up."
http://www.davros.org/rail/atmospheric.html (http://www.davros.org/rail/atmospheric.html)

[j4bberw0ck]

Nice try, but Jevon's Paradox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox) looks like coming true (again.....) :lol:

Eventually the emissions cost of building the car, compressing the air to power it, and then disposing of it will exceed the emissions savings produced.

Neat technology, though!

[badger]

A car that runs on compressed air? (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7241909.stm)

Oops misread that until I got further down and realised what you were talking about - thought it said CAT :D - imagination running wild.