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Driving a car that runs on air? It might be a slow road to popularity in the U.S., but the concept is becoming a reality in Europe and Asia. India's Tata Motors has committed to making its popular Nano car run on compressed air, and a hybrid compressed air-gasoline vehicle is in development in Zurich that would reduce fuel consumption by 32 percent.
Guy Negre is the man who has been driving the research behind the technology for years. He's a former designer for Renault, and now spends his time at his factory in Carros, France, working to turn his belief in air power into a practical reality. Negre says that he's developed a car that can travel more than 30 mph and up to 65 miles on one minute of charging. He faces skepticism, not least because the capacity for compressed air to store energy is quite limited. But he claims that air-powered driving is the way to a clean future.
How?
Compressed air is stored in the same type of tank used to store fuel in gas-powered buses: thermoplastic tanks encased in a carbon-fiber shell. (It's shatterproof, thank goodness.) The Guardian explains the rest:
The air is released through pistons in the engine, which drive the wheels. Unlike conventional internal combustion engines, air-powered engines run very cold and thick ice quickly forms on the engine. This means that the only feature that comes for free in the air car will be air-conditioning.
Each car has an onboard pump that can refill the tank overnight. But Negre has also developed a high-pressure air pump - imagine a heavy-duty version of the tyre pumps found on a garage forecourt - that can fill the tanks in less than a minute. These could be powered by clean electricity - hydro, wind or solar - making the air car completely pollution-free.
Check out how an air-powered bike works, and don't miss the Planet Mechanics episode where the team devises a bike that runs only on air.
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Pneumatic Hybrids: Inexpensive Gasoline + Compressed Air System Could Reduce Fuel Consumption by 32%
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