Air-power car?

Question

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7243247.stm

Answer 1

What kind of question is that miladdo?

Yes... air is the future sonny.

Answer 2

awesome int it  - yes its true they have invented a car that runs on compressed air - however all that will happen is the big oil companies will buy the patent for the invention and the car will never be seen again - or at least not in our lifetime!! but great concept!!!!

Answer 3

This is very interesting, but what gives the air its pressure, when an air canester on an air rifle is used it is easily filled, but that is not quite the same whan using a car just look at the difference between the air in a can on an air gun, only has to push a small bit of lead, now think of one on a car that has to push pistons, sounds too good to be true.

Answer 4

I kinda think that it's like following an ideal dream, something that they say is going to be the thing of the future, but actually never happens. It's easier to walk or ride a bicycle, besides, imagine the amount of CO2 produced to manufacture it.

Answer 5

Yes !- this is all well and good,but what about the 3 phase, high volume compressor that you have to fit in an explosion-proof bunker,in order to fuel the damned thing, in order to travel 5 miles !!!

Answer 6

Yes

Answer 7

old news

you never will see them in the US

Answer 8

compressed air can not hold much energy, compared will fuel or even electric batteries, so this car will require large compressed air tanks, and that will take large volume of the car and will still allow the car only a short drive before recharging.

Answer 9

If it is as good as the initial blurb suggests this will be one of the major contributions to protecting our planet.

Answer 10

I just glanced at the internet link, but the news story about this car doesn't seem to say where the compressed air will come from in the first place.

The article also says that the car is supposed to be "pollution free" in the cities - which is really important, of course.  But it doesn't say anything that I can see about what effect this new car would have in reducing CO2 emissions that are helping to cause dangerous climate change.

The French scientist Cournot got it right about energy and thermodynamics, I think.  Except in the case of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion, energy is never created or destroyed in our universe.  It's just transformed from one place to another place and from one form to another form.

If the compressed air is supposed to provide the energy to run this new kind of car, therefore, the compressed air itself has to get its energy from somewhere.   Where?

Suppose the Indians use solar energy, wind turbines, hydro-power or tidal power to get the power to compress the air in the first place.  In that case - great, the production of the compressed air won't generate CO2 emissions that contribute to dangerous climate change.

Or suppose the Indians use nuclear energy to get the power to comrpess the air that goes into the cars.  Well, nuclear power production doesn't produce much CO2, so it probably won't contribute to climate change.  

But nuclear power does generate dangerous radioactive waste that need to be stored safely, in isolation from the rest of the environment, for long periods of time -- in the case of plutonium 139, these wastes need to be stored for hundreds of thousands of years.

So if nuclear power provides the energy to produce compressed air for these cars, we could face a really huge problem with nuclear waste disposal.  And of course there's also the danger that governments or terroritsts could use nuclear power plant technology to produce the raw materials used in nuclear weapons.

What if coal or oil or natural gas is burned to produce the power that compresses the air for the new Tata Motors cars?

In that case, the cars won't emit pollution in the cities, and that will help air quality a lot.  

But the same amount of CO2 will still be generated.  And unless some way is found to "sequester" that CO2 in isolation, virtually forever, the problem of auto use contributing to global climate change will still be as bad as ever.

The Tata Motors news release, therefore, is  interesting and may be very good news for Asians living in highly polluted cities where the air pollution is bad.  

But so far, it promises no solution to the "greenhouse warming' problem, which seems to be a bigger problem than urban air pollution in the long run.