This is still just a flea bite compared to the "Carbon Footprint" of a coal burning plant such as my neighbor 8 mi. away
Bull Run Fossil Plant
Carbon Dioxide output / year
Posted on 03/19/2007 4:47:16 PM PDT by HangnJudge
March 19, 2007 Many respected engineers have been trying for years to bring a compressed air car to market, believing strongly that compressed air can power a viable "zero pollution" car. Now the first commercial compressed air car is on the verge of production and beginning to attract a lot of attention, and with a recently signed partnership with Tata, India’s largest automotive manufacturer, the prospects of very cost-effective mass production are now a distinct possibility. The MiniC.A.T is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued not welded and a body of fibreglass. The heart of the electronic and communication system on the car is a computer offering an array of information reports that extends well beyond the speed of the vehicle, and is built to integrate with external systems and almost anything you could dream of, starting with voice recognition, internet connectivity, GSM telephone connectivity, a GPS guidance system, fleet management systems, emergency systems, and of course every form of digital entertainment. The engine is fascinating, as is and the revolutionary electrical system that uses just one cable and so is the vehicle’s wireless control system. Microcontrollers are used in every device in the car, so one tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, indicators etc
Most importantly, it is incredibly cost-efficient to run – according to the designers, it costs less than one Euro per 100Km (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving), a factor which makes a perfect choice in cities where the 80% of motorists drive at less than 60Km. The car has a top speed of 68 mph.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmag.com ...
No, just reprocess it. Store whatever's left (which isn't much) in Yucca Mountain.
How dare you slay such a nifty fantasy car with your brutal numbers!
Aerodynamics don't matter nearly as much at low speeds -- like city driving. Drag increases with the square of the vehicle speed. At 60 mph, there would be 9 times the drag as at 20 mph.
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Would it even run in Fairbanks Alaska in -60F temps? or would it be able to heat the interior without having to haul a trailer with a small gas motor or propane heater just for the heat?
So I suspect this car is for when all the earth is in its death throes of global warming?
I would say the best thing ever would be like the DeLorean from Back to the Future, throw some garbage in it and off we go.
Just using PV = nRT, if temperature stays the same, 90 cu.m at 1 Bar is about .3 cu/m. at 300 Bars (90/300), or about 2 ft x 2 ft. x 2 ft. Reasonable enough.
Actually compressed air is an excellent way to store and tap energy, similar to, and almost exactly the same as, heat, which is why a lurker like me speaks up, and why the Indians consider it. Pressure (N/sq.m) is also energy per cubic meter (N-m/cu.m.). Altho like heat and the Second Law, there has to be a sink, (lower pressure) for the energy to flow. In this case 300 Bars and decreasing, to one Bar atmosphere, a calculus problem in regulating the volume flow for a constant energy flow (power).
Equating this pressure (300 Bars) and volume (.3 cu.m.) results in a stored energy of about 2.5 kwh. That's about what? 3 to 4 12 v. batteries. Not a lot but more than enough to get around the golf course a couple times.
None of this of course has to do with acquiring the pressure in the first place, about which I can offer no numbers.
Well, don't you know that electricity to power the compressors to charge the compressed air bottles in cars comes from God.
How can people be so stupid? (rolling eyes)
If it works it works. Great! But let's see how well it works. At first blush, it's range is less than half that of a mid-size internal combustion engine car. That said, we need to find something and this is at least a step in the right direction. The sooner we can tell the Saudis, Hugo Chavez and the rest of OPEC to pound sand, the better.
No it is not. When compressing air, a lot of energy is transformed into heat, which is dissipated without recovery making the efficiency very poor.
What happens when some eco freak rear ends me and ruptures the fully charged tank?
What if we used the heat to heat our homes?
Secondarily could braking be used to regenerate some of the pressure?
Sounds perfect for me. Retired, I do short trips mostly with a 200 mile round trip several times a month on which I am in no hurry. I'd buy one but $10 bucks says somehow it'll get buried somewhere in the grave yard. We won't hear much else about it.
Hmmmmm, on second thought wouldn't compressing air raise it's temperature eventually melting ice, then raising sea levels, stranding polar bears, flooding cities and causing the end of the world???? Now I can't sleep.
We've got to stop this project before it's too late. /sarc
You do what you want. As for me...I'm investing heavily in air.
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