I just got an email from my daughter with these two things. I did a BAUT search on benzene and Nègre, and nothing showed up, so I figured these are new to the forum:

Beware! That New Car Smell is Toxic!

OK, we already knew that, right? My kids hate it, for some reason.

Car that runs on compressed air, in IndiaHuh?

Discuss.

That's assuming an electric compressor.

Seems like a very inefficient use of energy, IMO

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So, why doesn't someone find a way to suck those toxic chemical fumes out of the upholstery and feed them into the engine? Two problems solved with one effort. (patent pending)

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Are you referring to the comment about storing electrical energy?

Right...But; it could be new to the forum.

Yep; I heard part of that story on the radio this morning... Could you fix the link? It has the title and not the URL? I was hoping for details...

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Fixed it. Sorry.

Thank you;
I followed thier link, and was thinking about how it can double as air conditioning, then bang; found that comment on this page.
Anyway, 3 to 5 hours at 240 volts? Sounds like a lot more than $2. I was also hoping to find the pressure and capacity. Too bad it will never make it to the US.

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Found a link: http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/mar/21car.htm

Edit: same car different article.

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Yup. I've seen more gasoline or deisel air compressors than electrical.

Either way, you're running a motor to compress air to run a motor. Why not cut out the middle-man?

__________________
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Well, that and if you look at the car it appears to be a tiny one-to-two person affair, which doesn't really fit into the accepted American views of a good vehicle. I'm not saying these views are right, or that the car would not sell at all, but there has already been some small one or two person electric cars that weren't *bad* but failed largely because of the vehicle size.

America has a fairly unique transportation issue; commute. Many countries, the (average) commute consists of entirely urban high-traffic areas. A little personal vehicle can be quite conveniant. But because of the vast size and sprawl of the US, most commuters need vehicles that can carry themselfs and passengers effectively in both urban, rural, and transition areas.

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You could say that about all electric cars, couldn't you? For that matter, you could say that about anything that runs on batteries. Why put energy into a battery just so you can take power out of it later?

When it's put that way, the answer's obvious, isn't it?

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Supernova power?.... (getting back to the source, as it were.)

__________________
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

The US government levies all sorts of requirements on cars including things like emissions, safety equipment, and crash worthiness. It seems very unlikely that compressed air vehicle could meet those requirements. It's possible that the technology could be fitted to a vehicle that does meet the requirements easier than updating that design.

Either way, you're running a motor to compress air to run a motor. Why not cut out the middle-man?

Compressed air is just another storage mechanism for energy. It's possible it might be more efficient than batteries. You'll have losses with any recharging mechanism. Just as using electricity to drive an air compressor has losses (in the electric motor and friction losses in the compressor), you'll also have losses with a batter recharger (always less than 100% efficient), electrical losses in the lines, and losses in the batteries themselves (not all of the electricity sent to a battery being recharged actually gets stored by the battery).

A compressed air system would likely be a lot cheaper and lighter than a battery pack. It may last longer, too. There are no toxic chemcials to worry about. Crashworthiness could be a concern with either design. Compressed air might have an advantage in cold weather - batteries lose a lot of their charge when they get cold.

OK, but the reason I menitoned it in the OP is, I don't think compressed air really counts as electrical energy.

Don't we talk about converting one form of energy into other forms of energy? Why would compressed air be a form of electrical energy? Would pumping water into a high tank make it electrical energy instead of hydro?

There are two reasons for using an energy source other than a combustion engine, efficiency and emissions. While it may seem silly to use an engine to make energy to drive an engine, consider the source... literally.

The electric power to run the air compressor (or charge the batteries) comes from a power plant. If that plant is reasonably well-run, it is more fuel efficient and less polluting than a combustion engine.

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

?? If that's electric, then I suppose indirectly all fossil fuel engines are solar, because their energy comes from plants and the animals that eat them.

You go back far enough, you end up saying all cars are propelled by the Big Bang.

Nope. It's more about effect than cause, IMHO. I.E., How efficiently can we convert that available energy into useful work?

__________________
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

"MDI explains that 90m3 of compressed air is stored in fibre tanks. The engine is powered by compressed air, stored in a carbon-fiber tank at 30 MPa (4500 psi)."

From:
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/mar/21car.htm

The $2 would depend on the amperage. Electric motors running the compressor may be quite efficient. The system could be metered and taxes could be refunded on power used to fill the car.

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Batteries are expensive, heavy, and wear out and need to be replaced on a regular basis. Thats the one thing keeping me from thinking electric (and hybrid) cars are the best thing ever.

I think they said pretty much the same about the the Model T went it came out to replace horses.

We do need to get away from fossil fuel GW cars. Electric may be passed by air sooner than we think.

If there is enough pressure they will pass safety standards in most countries.

__________________
'Sir........, I don't like these numbers.'
'Then hire somebody that can change them!'
("`-/")_.-'"``-.,,
\. . `; -._( );, `)
(v_,)' _ )`-. \ ``'`
_.- _..-/ /((.'
((,.-' ((,/