Quote:
Originally Posted by Vwbeamer
My personal opinion is that the whole air car thing is a scam to get investors. Compressed air is ineffective way to store energy.
Ever use an air grinder? you have to have a 5 hp compressor to run the thing and it burns a lot of energy. A simple hand held electric grinder will do the same work cheaper.
Now i know the pressure is supposed to be a lot higher, around 300 bar. But air compressed is hot air, when air cools it will contract, so pressure is lost as the tank cools.
This would be cool if it's true, but I'm naturally skeptical of this idea.
I could see it being used as regenerative braking. where a cylinder is used to compress sir while braking, and then the air flow is reversed and used to drive the cylinder.
|
Yea, the loss of compressive heat hurts a lot. AFAIK, you lose something over 40% of the energy. IMO, small batteries or supercapacitors and motors are still the best bet for regenerative systems.
I'm thinking there must be some way for a compressing station to reclaim some of the energy in the hot gas they produce. They could then transfer cooled air to your vehicle with little loss, improving overall system efficiency. an alternative would be to heavily insulate the storage tanks on your car.