[grey_whiskers]

From your article:

Mr Negre says a tank-full of air - on which a car can travel up to 200km (120 miles) at a speed of about 90km/h - is equivalent to two litres of petrol.

Hmm, anyone know the work necessary to compress air (let's just say standard temperature and pressure) to 4500 PSI at -100 C?

That amount of work is the *maximum* work available to be converted to kinetic energy.

And petrol has (if I'm quoting P.J. O'Rourke right) 31,250 kcal / gallon.

Can 2 liters of petrol take a car 120 miles at roughly 60 mph? That's two hours at highway speed, for 1/2 gallon.

I don't think even a Prius can manage that--unless you are coasting downhill.

Something doesn't seem to add up.

Cheers!

[aligncare]

What some people miss is that the compressed air engine is already in use in forklifts at a huge indoor shipping center in Australia (the previous gas engine forklifts used indoors were making people sick and this technology solved the indoor air quality issue).

The engine is currently in use in specialized applications and future technology will give us choices in cars and fuels. It's science...it's not a greenie communist plot to raise taxes and force everyone to drive an econobox.