Compressed Air Powered Vehicles in Development

Compressed air, along with electric and bio-fuel, could be an alternative to gasoline powered transport.



I hope you come back tomorrow as I will be publishing a post that I find really interesting - do it yourself carbon fiber panels, a great project to help lighten your old clunker and save on gas.

Compressed Air Cars

Compressed air can be used to run a car engine. Of course, although air is free, the energy required to pressurize the air is not free. However, compressed air as a motor fuel allows us to maintain transport without gasoline. The infrastructure to compress the air would replace the petroleum, refining and gasoline distribution infrastructure. Of course, the part at the end of the video where they talk about perpetual motion based on compressed air running a generator which compresses more air is nonsense. Using compressed air to run a compressor will give you less pressurized air than you started with due to inevitable losses.



If you want to see and read more about compressed air cars make sure to stop by Save On Gas again soon. I will be doing another post about these cool alternative fuel cars tomorrow.

OneCAT Compressed Air Vehicle

Tata Motors is an India car manufacturer. They are the makers of the Tata Nano, one of the world's cheapest cars. They are also vigorously investigating fuel economy and alternative energy technologies that Detroit slumbered on until it is too late. It looks as though Tata Motors will be among the automakers of the future. It is doubtful that the US, once the undisputed leader of the automotive world, will have a place in that future unless Detroit proves capable of turning on a dime.

The OneCAT is a compressed air powered vehicle. It is small and light, thus automatically gaining a great deal of fuel efficiency. It runs on 200 liter tanks of compressed air. The vehicle has an onboard compressor. Plugged into a normal electrical outlet, the compressor can recharge the tanks with high pressure air in 4 hours. Future plans include a system of high pressure compressors deployed in filling stations which can recharge the tanks in a couple of minutes.

The OneCAT could be a perfect solution for local urban travel. Since it is not electric, it avoids the need for big heavy batteries. The savings on weight will give it yet more fuel economy.

The near future of consistently high gasoline prices will mean that populations enjoying widespread usage of gas sippers like the OneCAT will escape the nightmare of the gas pump.

Futuristic gas sipper

We all know that one way to save on gas is to drive a car that gets better mileage per gallon. Case in point: the Feds are sure in love with that idea ... they want US automakers to improve fuel efficiency by 40% as soon as 2016. This will be a tough challenge for the automakers. We will see how it all works out. Meanwhile, on the home front, most of us just cannot go out and buy a newer fuel sipper. Unless you are rich, it is just not practical to change cars like you change socks.




Even though for most of us it is not an option, it is fun to see some of the new gas sipping concepts popping up nowadays. Take a look at this one: the 2010 MDI AIRPod. It is powered by compressed air. Although tiny, it holds three people. One person has to sit facing backwards. It can go 130 miles between "fill ups" and has a top speed of 40 mph. It carries an air compressor, so you can just plug it in to any outlet, wait 4 hours, and then you are filled up and good to go.

Here is what the manufacturer MDI has to say about the Airpod.