Driving On Compressed Air: The Little-Known Compressed Air Revolution
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
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In March 2020, Reza Alizade Evrin and Ibrahim Dincer from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology's Clean Energy Research Lab pioneered an innovative vehicle prototype fueled by compressed air, using readily available components. This prototype showcased remarkable energy efficiency, reaching up to 90% of a lithium-ion electric vehicle's efficiency and predicting a range of around 140 kilometers. While surpassable by current electric vehicles, the real breakthrough was the exclusive use of compressed air as an energy source.
The history of compressed air vehicles dates back to the early 19th century when the concept of harnessing compressed air's power for vehicles emerged. Despite early breakthroughs like Louis Mékarski's compressed air locomotive in the 1860s, practical applications were limited. Mining operations and tunnel constructions adopted compressed air vehicles due to their safety advantages, but they couldn't compete with internal combustion engines.
Compressed air storage systems faced inherent flaws, with conventional methods wasting energy due to heat loss during compression and cooling during expansion. Adiabatic and isothermal storage techniques were explored to improve efficiency, particularly for utility power storage. Researchers like Evrin and Dincer delved into near-isothermal compressed air storage, enhancing thermodynamic limits for vehicle applications using phase change materials.
Advantages of compressed air vehicles include potential fourfold energy storage compared to lithium-ion batteries, direct mechanical energy conversion, quiet and lightweight turbine-based motors, and sustainability due to minimal toxic materials and reduced manufacturing complexity. Tankage solutions vary between low-pressure and high-pressure systems, utilizing lightweight composite tanks that are safer and cheaper to produce compared to batteries.
The challenge of designing efficient air motors led to innovations like EngineAir's Di Pietro Motor, addressing torque inconsistencies through a rotary positive displacement design. However, achieving consistent torque across pressure ranges remained an obstacle.
Commercialization history saw ups and downs. French engineer Guy Negre proposed the idea in 1996, leading to prototypes like MDI's "OneCAT" and partnerships with companies like Tata Motors. However, challenges including safety concerns and governmental support for electric and hybrid vehicles hindered mass adoption. MDI's AirPod 2.0, introduced in 2019, featured hybrid refueling and improved speeds, yet production plans remained uncertain.
Despite the journey's challenges, MDI persists in the pursuit of compressed air vehicle commercialization, aiming to revolutionize transportation with this sustainable technology.
FOOTAGE
Traveling Tom - 1906, HK Porter, Compressed air mine locomotive demonstration
Infinite Composites Technologies
Angelo Di Pietro
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George Medhurst was FRENCH?? 😳
ruclips.net/video/l7-dATXap_M/видео.htmlsi=BTMuVARxbg97ssEN
Red Barchetta by Rush in 1981:
"Suddenly ahead of me
Across the mountainside
A gleaming alloy *air car*
Shoots towards me, two lanes wide
I spin around with shrieking tires
To run the deadly race
Go screaming through the valley
As another joins the chase"
(imagining a future where combustion engines were outlawed...)
Woah dude... We know you're smart, but you need to make your content more accessible.
ruclips.net/video/hUXebAHLnqg/видео.html
As a marksman, I got interested in Pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) rifles a decade ago. Those unfamiliar with PCPs generally laughed at the "boys with their Red Ryders". That has changed. The advances occurring within that niche industry have outpaced traditional firearms and speak volumes on what can be done with pneumatics. I understand that while some/many of the physics and engineering problems are different, if a competitive financial model can be developed, we will see these faster than most expect....and we won't hear them comming. Thnaks for posting.
There’s an old time steel mill device called a Vortex Valve’, which was a cheap air conditioning trick, used to make the super-hot steel mill cool enough for the workers to survive working in there. You pump the local air through this valve, and it splits it into two jets of air, one hot, one cold, with the hot air jet piped outdoors. Perhaps some new application of the thing, could help in a few of these air power systems?
that wont change anything to the bottom line, compressing air is inefficient by itself, therefore compressed air is a very mediocre storage medium.
So is team but rember it's not going to be as efficient as petrol .doesn't mean it's nota good medium .itsquickto fill and has a good milage. Its only real issue is it's very explosive that's it's only draw back .@@lo2740
It's an interesting concept for many other problems.
They have small units, that help cool machining processes, without a liquid coolant.
They are sort of pricey but interesting.
We spray messy coolants at grinding and cutting tools.
Extremely expensive air conditioning method, one of the worst. Compressed air is typically produced by electricity then compressed air is used to produce cold air with a byproduct consisting of hot air.
Ranque-Hilsch device splitting a single air supply line into hot and cold streams, then routing those to the hot and cold ends of a Stirling engine, could make a superefficient system, or help boost the power of an already very powerful Rotary Wankel airmotor.
Peugeot-Citroën really dived into the project with the HybridAir concept, which went on years of development and research until they pull the plug due to the rise of the battery hybrids.
The system would function like a 48 volt mild hybrid, keeping the car in motion at stable speeds and at low speeds, making possible the 1.2 3cyl gasoline engine to shut off. Very ingenious
Was about to say exactly this... funny how EVERYTHING on youtube is "NEW"...
Seems like an energy storage technology that could work as solar energy storage in hot climates. Compressed air could be stored at room temperature and when needed, compressed air could drive a turbine-generator or engine-generator to generate electricity. The cold air would be useful for space cooling. So a combined power and cooling system.
I love to see people under technology videos are always giving ideas how to improve or where would be the usage of the technology. Seems like the purest of the communities with only interest to improve humanity. I hope it always stay the same. It is creative brainstorming to read thru comment section.
That's the best concept i have read on YT in years! Great thinking!
ruclips.net/video/vU3hwvJs1Js/видео.html
@@vaclavpasak2703 ruclips.net/video/vU3hwvJs1Js/видео.html
Chill the air lines between the compressor and the tank. Fill it with chilled air to max or regulated pressure... Then even with compressor off and air being used, the temp rise would help regulate it further for longer between compressor cycles.
The potential energy of compressed air can be easily calculated and "efficiency" isnt the first word that comes to mind.
... and while compressed air is clean itself, the energy required to compress air is enormous
Compressing air would leave a ton of water in the tank over time. There's so many fake green technologies, this is one of them.
yes, air motor is total nonsense in 99% of the use case. The only niches where it could justify itself is in some industry where massive amount of compressed air is produced anyway, like mines maybe. But even in these case i dont think i would make much sense because these "motors" require compressed air stored at 350bar, which is never the case in such industries. SO it would still need to be compressed again, and anyway as you mention the efficiency oof compressing air at such pressure isextremely low, not to mention the motor is also very inefficient, and finally the storage is totally unpractical, requiring massive carbon fiber sylinders, in a vehicle where spâce is a premium. So only dumb "investors" sufficiently braindead to invest in mdi, a scam going on for decades now, could see any future in such "technology" (it is not even a technology).
@@lo2740 They've been used in mining to prevent explosions and to increase safety. That's the only area that I can think of this makes sense.
And I hear you with MDI. It's amazing that company still exists. I think the furthest they have driven a test car was 10 km.
YOU ARE CORRECT, I HAVE A COMPRESSED AIR GENERATOR AND TO FILL A SMALL TANK (1/2 LITRE) TAKES AGES AND THE ELECTRIC-POWERED COMPRESSOR OPERATES ON VERY HIGH WATTAGE, SO TO FILL A TANK BIG ENOUGH FOR A CAR WOULD NOT ONLY BE COSTLY IT WOULD NOT BE VERY QUICK UNLESS YOU FILLED FROM AN AIR STORAGE TANK, AND THEN THAT WOULD COST A FORTUNE TO FILL, THESE ENGINES ARE NOT HE FUTURE,
I.C.E. IS THE FUTURE
car: i have driving fun to not be bored and non attentive partially for saftey reasons, i do it by trying to get max miles per gallon and not wearing out the tires by using them to slow down a lot . its like old school endurance racing at more relaxed pace(if you arnt in a rush to get to places quickly), you minimize need for pitstops for fuel tires lubricant etc. for example, you preserve momentum around turns instead and speeding up again, but dont loose traction. . you brake and steer minimally but steadily, build up momentum downhills and at optimal rpm and power level according to bfsc chart for the engine (electric motors also have this ) . you maintain speed that is less than roughly 50 mile per hour (if car is more areodynamic, you can tolerate higher speed, but cutting through the wind becomes exponentially less effceint as you increase speed linearly). although climate crisis stuff isnt proven to be caused by humans or to be getting much worse near out times as happened before to humans, and the politics is obviosuly led by people who dont care about it, chemcial toxicity affecting food supply and sustainability og the buisness model of car design, are good reasons to do this if the money savings means nothing to you.
t weight is less safe t to people outside the car involved in crash, and unsafe to people inside car unless its more expensively built. weight exponentially worsens road longveity before repairs are needed, causing emission , monetary costs too, etc. not necessary: drive.google.com/file/d/1EG0dKAd3yuIRnND73W80v5i4CNe-EOzA/view?pli=1 pavementinteractive.org/reference-desk/design/design-parameters/equivalent-single-axle-load/
i think hybrid better than ev because: if you wanna lower emissions as long as possible as mass scale , you use a mix of combustion of non fully recyclable and currently rarely ever recycled, battery mass. whatever mix lasts longest. weight is less safe t to people outside the car involved in crash, and unsafe to people inside car unless its more expensively built. weight exponentially worsens road longveity before repairs are needed, causing emission , monetary costs too, etc. it also worsens tire dust emisions and brake dust emissions expoeentially: drive.google.com/file/d/1EG0dKAd3yuIRnND73W80v5i4CNe-EOzA/view?pli=1 pavementinteractive.org/reference-desk/design/design-parameters/equivalent-single-axle-load/ magnetic reversal news , tony heller, tom nelson www.corbettreport.com/ www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566750/ www.greencarcongress.com/2022/05/20220513-ea.html#:~:text=Emissions%20Analytics%E2%80%99%20results%20suggest%20around%2011%25%20of%20the,more%20than%20400%20times%20higher%20than%20tailpipe%20emissions. natural rubber and better brake metal can minimize problem to some extent
g@@sicks6six
In 2007/2008 I read about Tata Motors compressed air project. Back then I was actively trading in the stock market. I bought some stocks and suddenly I heard no updates about the project. I waited while the stock kept going down and heard nothing ever since. The rest is history.
Physics sucks...
It was certainly unexpected to see a professor from my faculty featured in a youtube video on a fairly large channel, and the first time I have heard of this research. Congratulations to Dr. Dincer and Mr. Evrin! I hope our UOIT will better communicate its research throughout our community since this makes me curious what other exceptional research has been done, and simply not well publicized.
This isn't workable. There's huge loses in compressing air, I don't believe they ever demonstrated a vehicle that did over 10 KM much less 100. I smell fraud.
I've been following MDIs work on this. Its a great concept.
One thing we have got to get over is this idea of "most efficient". Nothing can come to market unless its more efficient than what's out there now.
We need to be looking at "efficent enough". Giving the available space, weight, or whatever actual constraints you have (not the slick constraints that make your eyes buldge and you say "oooo" too, but the real constraints), is the given solution efficent enough to solve the problem. A lot more of these devices, if the would just hit the market sooner could get the capital the need to advance the technology.
mdi is a wel known scam going on for decades, air motor is a joke, the total cycle efficiency its extremely low, the energy density extremely low, there is a reason why you never see any "air car" it makes zero sense and never will.
@@lo2740have you shares in oilor are you just don't like air cars.effitantly they are not petrol .but as a median that is good to move vehicles and re fuel quickly and do what it says on the box . It's very good , if you don't like air cars fine but don't tell liesso people agree withyourway of thinking . Air cars is a good idea .and quicker than electric and solar and wind . Your looking att this medium from the wrong angle .
@@Richard-oc4lx air could possibly be the actual worst way to store and transfer energy, especially in a mobile platform.
With new Composites we have the ability now to build lighter components and I have seen what compressed air can do at high pressure. Being a deep sea diver and heavy equiment mechanic useing air tools I believe for short distance operations we can easily build air powered cars. But everyone that has the ability to build what we are seeing in the prototypes looks like a freaking sweet pea or an apple with wheels. I'm thinking if they used a foam cored thin composite skin, add a small LP heater for a heat chamber before the air goes into the intake of the motor, filter the total exhaust an run it into the cockpit, you would have cleaner air in the vehicle then out side it... and free air conditioning. Useing a scuba filling station with proper filting of course, you would even be cleaning the the air as you fill up. The main draw back is the air would be dry and leaves you with dry mouth. You would have to use vegetable based oils and lubricants. I'm thinking of a rotary type engine, in town and mostly a car the size of a large golf cart with a few of the big composite tanks sandwiched by a strong reinforced plate chaises and off the shelf components for the air power supply. It is doable.
I love this idea as an energy storage medium. Direct hydropneumatic or wind driven compression would be awesome. You could either forget about electricity production all-together, or only convert the energy from compressed air to electricity on demand.
Yes but you need energy to compress the air so you can't compleletey forget about electricity production
Won't work because of thermodynamics
Would be great for short term storage/load leveling applications, compressed air tanks at turbine sites could store excess power optimizing the production and use of the connected grid. Although some 'danger' involved with compressed air, it's is at least environmentally .safe'.
@@tedarcher9120way to not elaborate on your point and show that you didn’t watch the whole video
As a Canadian energy conservation expert and pneumatic researcher and enthusiast I can assure you that this is the future of energy. All that matters is that the heat is kept in the system.
Adiabatic at ya? Sounds interesting already with so much wasted heat for a norm. BC Canadian here.
I remember the TATA in India, Thought it was a great idea as a small around town car.. But electricity is bad, Unless its to charge a Electric Car... The only real issue I saw was the need for 4000 Psi compressors to fill the tank
lol, tat was scammed by mdi, it is well known, they were sufficiently stupid to fall for this scam which was already going for two decades at the time, so they must be extremely dumb tho. I is not hard to understand the air is a terrible medium for vehicle energy storage, it is totally impractical for physical reasons and the total cycle efficiency is extremely low, way below anything else.
And the compressor runs on hope, compassion and heart warmth )))))
This is a great video. I could see a lot of other uses for this. Just thinking about the heat recovery from phase changes opens a lot of design possibilities for all kinds of systems. Really well researched! Lately there have been few videos that make me think "oh, I could use this here or there." in a cascade of thoughts on other systems. This is one of the very few videos I have shared and saved. Thank you for restoring YoTub's relevance a bit!
Thermal efficiency kills this as an energy storage medium. Batteries are better than 90% (possibly over 95%). The additional costs are quickly recouped.
@@davidelliott5843 He goes over the shortcomings and the current solutions to sit shortcomings in the video. Also he goes over the concept that companies are currently testing that can even have better energy storage in the battery counterparts. Way to show that you didn’t understand the video or watch the whole thing.
@@VinceroAlpha totally agree with you, but Mr Elliott feels he knows better.
@@simonmasters3295 🤣😂 thanks
Such a dirty energy though@@davidelliott5843
Great video. The most popular way to fail with a new technology is to design a weird looking three wheel car that looks unstable and unsafe. I suspect the price of batteries and electric motors going so low made this option look expensive.
Physics will always tell you that compressed air is a very inefficient energy storage. It's even inefficient in a workshop, where its benefits can still outweigh the inefficiency. But for cars, LMAO.
Was looking for this comment. Factories have been moving away from compressed air as a “energy source” (pneumatic cylinders etc in machines) for years now and switching to electric actuators instead. It is way more efficient (thus cheaper and less emissions) to use the electricity directly rather than using electricity to make compressed air and then use it..
@@bowesterlund3719 Yes, even in the shop, a lot of energy is lost, and with BLDC motors and the necessary controllers/inverters getting cheaper and smaller, one of the main arguments of using pressurized air tools - being compact - has become obsolete.
It still has a place in industries where explosions can occur, though.
And about 10 years ago, MDI also claimed a practical car powered by compressed air. So far no sign of it hitting the road.
@@tz8785 The more air you need to store, the less practical it becomes. As a result, there are a few small and range-limited cars on the market, I believe made by Tata.
@@graealexExactly! A good example of what you are saying is a dremel. It can almost do the same work as a similarly sized die grinder but without the 3 hp air compressor. Personally I only use my garage compressor for stuff when I need the air itself. Like pumping tires or blowing dust of things etc
All of this "alternative" energy research, with it's increasingly complex ideas is the new alchemy and it will be just as successful.
alchemy turned into chemistry and made our modern world possible. Without it, we'd still sit in mud huts and rub sticks together for fire.
Complexity is scary huh. I too miss a simpler world. But not every new thing is bad.
And internal combustion engines aren't complex? With all the massive infrastructure behind obtaining, refining and distributing the fuel...
I don't think this compressed air thing will go anywhere on a large scale either but let's not leave any stones unturned.
The real problem is the complexity of this system will make it cost more and be less reliable than EVs. It may have some niche uses and it sounds to me like this will be more useful for stationary energy storage.
That's exactly what I was going to say.
More complexity creates more jobs. Suddenly those jobs eliminated by oil efficiency return.
Thanks for the updates on MDI. I followed them in the early 2000s, but lost track a long time ago.
Quite quiet around them
MDI is an ongoing scam since at least two decades lol, it is just an investor money trap, anyone slightly interested in the topic knows that. It is incredible this is still going on, they never delivered anything but crappy "prototypes" barely able to run 1km at 40kmh lol. Their business is to sell "license" to their "technology", lol. Of course you are not going to see any car or car factory with such motors, because the efficiency is like 10% with wind in the back, it would only fit some niche sectors and even for these it could only work with massive subsides from governement money, because it makes zero sense economilcally, the efficiency is way too low, meaning it would cost 3 or 4 times more electricity to run than even the most basic and inefficient electrical vehicle, not to mention it requires huge carbon fiber cylinders at 350 bar, which is expensive, dangerous and takes massive room. Finally you'll also need some very special compressor to fill them, and as mentioned the total cycle efficiency is ridiculous. This video is a joke.
Ya I think we all did, no way that idea is ever going to hold air.
@@MatthewHolevinski ROFL
For use in cars, the main hurdle is space constraints. There's just no space in a Toyota Mirai or Hyundai Nexo. Though these being hydrogen cars, they employ large composite tanks and leave very little interiour space for occupants and luggage.
The electrical grid would be running electrical pumps instead of charging batteries, even with the theoretical efficiency gains over BEV it's basically apples to apples from that perspective.
I think the benefit would potentially be that the car us cheaper to produce since it doesn’t require as many expensive battery materials?
Energywise yeah probably the same if not more costly since compressed air seems more inefficient.
Same as electric cars. The idea is to centralise energy production which can be transitioned to zero carbon. Also not apples to apples in the sense that it doesn't use batteries which require mining of rare earth metals
@@rbauer961No rare earth metals in Batteries. Motors sometimes.
Lithium, Carbon. Iron, Sodium, Phosphates... all abundant.
what if there wasn't a single electrical part in the entire generation and usage setup? ie/ tidal / hydro compressors
Thanks for sharing your videos, was nice to see an update on this technology. Along time ago when this tech was experiencing a resurgence I pondered if this might be a good substitute for energy in lawn care equipment. Whenever mowing large lawns I would notice the mower deck would get quite hot. In retrospect I’m pondering if my spindle bearings needed some work, but at the time I was convinced that it was from all the friction involved in the cutting, chopping and blowing process and then pondered if the mower deck was made with integrated cooling channels similar to rocket nozzles than maybe the air could be preheated by running thru the mower deck and besides boosting power input to the motor would offer cooling for the operator. 😂
😂🎉
You might be on to something
Unfortunately, to me this has the taint of a startup money and funding grab. Others mentioned the tank safety issues if the vehicle and air system is damaged, but there are many others to evaluate. System performance changes due to external temperature changes, elevation changes, air drying when compressed, how the air system reacts to external pressure changes, i.e. fronts, low pressure systems and tropical storms are all huge factors to consider.
Elevation only matters when making the compressed air a drop in external pressure would give the system more power.
Dew point would be a huge problem though.
Videos of this type ARE just ads for the latest scam. The video productions are usually paid for by the companies/products being showcased.
I always get excited when there new uploads from this channel!
Yeah, we just had a very blatant example of the resiliency of composite overwrapped vessels with the loss of the submarine.
This was a really fantastic and well researched video - thanks!!
not well researched at all, typical youtube content, air motor is a joke and it is well known, and MDI is a scam going on for at least two decades lol. Using air in vehcile makes zero sense, the total cycle efficiency is extremely low and always will be because highly compressed air (350 bar) is jsut a terrible medium for energy storage in a vehicle application, as simple as that.
Wow ! And it only takes 3 HP to produce 1 HP of compreesded air! That should triple the pollution problems!
I remember watching a discovery Channel documentary about compressed air powered cars on discovery Channel in the mid 2000s. Always wondered what happened to the idea.
It's because
- Insane pressures are required to get a good yield, causing a lot of stress on the tanks which will need to be replaced regularly, adding cost,
- Air tanks must be thick and thus bulky to handle the pressures involved, and must be made from expensive high grade steel,
- Efficiency is really not all that since a lot of energy is lost in the form of heat during compression,
- The system freezes over if decompressed too rapidly, and heating is required to overcome this, further reducing efficiency,
- Max. power tapers off as the tanks are slowly depleted,
- Steam power proved more efficient, cheaper, versatile, and reliable.
Compressed air engines have only niche applications, really.
Maybe as big land based storage with compressed air can make sense since it's much easier to store the heat energy but for moving vehicles it doesn't seem to make that much sense since to store heat energy is impossible in small volumes and you end up with very complex systems. I wonder why all the promises or range and efficiency never seem to materialise
Thanks for introducing me to this technology and its challenges that need to be overcome to make it at all viable. This sort of content is why I love your channel
So cool to see someone I've met on this channel! Dr. Dincer was a lecturer of mine, Thermo & Heat Transfer
9:50 I drive my EV for 3 years now, never experienced self discharge even when standing for two weeks
Compressed air is a great idea for niche applications. No ignition source. Cheap materials. No pollution. Easy "fuel" to gather and store. Free air conditioning.
No pollution? How so?
No pollution? do you understand that the total cycle efficiency is in the order of 5 to 10%?. that is, you put 10KW of electricity at the inpu and you get 1KW or 500watt at the vehcile whell, lol, that is so laughable. IT is the most polluting of all mediums, because the efficiency is so low.
@@lo2740 I used to work for a worldwide air tool company. Our GTG40 9" turbine grinder had an output power of 4.5kW but required a 25kW compressor to power it.
I will concede that a large-scale compressed air system would have heat recovery, but end-to-end losses make compressed air an instant non-starter for personal transport. Those who pursue and support it are scientifically ignorant.
Pneumatic motor still has to obey the second law of thermodynamics. Not many people know this.
Do you mean it’s going to get very cold?
@@pascalbruyere7108 it means efficiency is related to temperature difference
@@luongmaihunggiatemperature difference
@@radicaledwards3449 yeah, that's what I meant
Battery, otherwise no car works, even combustion engines.
I haven't seen one of your videos in a minute, I've seen a ton of these compressed-air cars used in India and Mexico.
Really? Wow, you have some links or photos?
Same. Glad you’re back. Been missing those over the top builds!
It's not compressed air..it's compressed natural gas (CNG) and the engine is still ICE.
In Mexico?
@@isaeljosafatmartinezclavel5283 yes
Been thinking about this for decades now (mostly liquid nitrogen), which is a perfect fuel for my solar powered coastal cruising boat, since it does not need high torque and can use solar while sitting at port to charge up its tanks for a prolonged time before heading off to the next port, all using zero fuel. Tankage provides floatation and structure to the vessel. A total design win, yet nobody has yet built such a boat and I can't spend my time on it these days.
I will rent your nitrogen powered boat
How do you liquify the nitrogen with a solar panel? that's extemely energy intensive
@@t0k4m4k7 A small cryocooler like they use on cell towers and spaceships. Just takes a LONG time to produce enough to power a boat for 100 miles, but you can use both the solar AND the LN storage to move the boat. 3kw of solar.
I discuss this a lot and am thought to be a fool
You do know that a tank of liquid nitrogen would not float...
As a lowly compressor tech, I just shake my head at the ways these engineers keep me employed.
I giggle at the thought of seeing one of these tugging around an old portable 185 just to keep running. That makes as much sense as a new lightning stuck on the side of the road getting recharged from a generator.
Nevermind how energy intensive compressing air is. For industrial use it's the single worst way to use power.
meng here...yes it's a stupid concept..i still wonder who invests money on these thing..then i take a look at kickstarter and then i say people are stupid
wel, it is actually a scam, well know, and going on for more than two decades, the only achievement of this company is to pump very dumb investors money and sell them "licenses" lol.
The energy efficiency of this motor (total cycle) is 5%; but the scamming efficiency is 100%.
Top notch quality video. Thanks.
Its good to see this older technology is being advanced at the research level
If I remember right a gentleman built a ford grenada powered by compressed air tanks, and a very large rodac impact wrench. Might have been in Popular Science or Mechanics too.
I recall hearing that a practical limitation is the operating temperature, you get far less range in cold countries compared to more ideal environments like India.
I really like your videos, please keep doing more 👍🏻
It would be great to use for residential home energy storage. Cheap and safe.
Rather than using compressed air, why not use a liquid that boils and expands greatly under heat. Instead of using low efficiency air compression, instead more efficient induction heating.
Viola, you've got a modern 21st steam engine which would only need to be plugged in once a week for typical driving distances.
Heat engines are inherently less efficient than electric motors so there's no real advantage
@@nahometesfay1112 They also cost a fraction to manufacturer compared to electric motors and expensive lithium batteries.
it is called steam, we used that two centuries ago.
Low energy density can be overcome at the expense of safety and increased risk of catastrophic failure. Imagine a 4500psi air tank detonating in a collision...even if you survive the crash you will not survive the explosion of the tank. Burning literal TNT would be safer than this!
Excellent presentation. 👍👍
I get super excited whenever I see a new video from you. You always make excellent videos. This one was no exception! I hope compressed air makes a comeback! Thanks for the video :)
Some interesting questions!
1. How easy can "refueling" be for a compressed air vehicle?
2. How can compressed air vehicles handle changes of external temperature?
3. Related to the previous question, can heat radiation from the sun/ambient air (like when a car accumulates heat on a parking lot) be harvested to maintain the air temperature?
4. Is there a way to maintain the pressure while air is being discharged (i'm thinking an inner spring-loaded piston, reducing the volume of the tank (raising pressure) while air escapes)
5. How would the size of the air tank affect the practicality of vehicles like this?
I think refueling would be the same as current CNG refueling stations.
For 2, Heat would increase pressure. And yes, you could take advantage of that.
4, it would just increase the pressure from the beginning. It would be the same as just running a higher pressure. You could use some kind of powered device to increase pressure at will, but that would be counter productive.
I don't know about automobiles, but I garner FREE compressed air on my North Texas homestead and it in turn runs machinery as well as makes electricity.
I use a small south-facing (tilted @ my latitude)12-15 volt solar panel, which drives a small air compressor whenever the sun shines.
I have 2,000+ gallons of storage. My receiver system auto-dumps at 120 psig.
Two thousand gallons of compressed air beats expensive and dangerous lithium batteries any day of the week.
Free compressed air gives me lots of other free stuff, like electricity for air conditioning, etc.
I remember various reading about / watching videos about various people / companies exploring / using compressed air in the 1990's / 2000's ... Lots of fork lifts actually run on compressed air. I hope they can move beyond storing highly compressed air in tanks, because the pressures involved are truly frightening if anything ruptures.
Those fork lifts are gas powered ICE, they do not run on compressed air. The physics of it makes it simply not feasible
@@GiorgioAresu The forklift was running on compressed air - definitely NOT gas. Do a search on Angelo Di Pietro's work with the Di Pietro Air Motor for starters. His forklift was using air tanks tanks an frighteningly high pressures: 350bars or 5000psi. Sorry, I cannot post links here, because my replies never show up.
I remember years ago about this. Like 20 years ago. I’m not surprised it didn’t take off.
it is not intended to "take off" just to scam investors, it is a notorious scam, there will never be "air vehicle" because using 350 bar compressed air as a storage medium is a terrible idea, the total cycle efficiency is extremely low, way below any other technology, and it is also extremely impractical to use. It is so obvious, and has been demonstrated multiuple times. This video makes a terrible job at providing meaningful informations, but it is not surprizing, because the goal of the video is to make money, not provide correct and decent informations, as long as the appearence is there...
Compressed air tanks are heavy, I seriously doubt that the energy density can be increased without increasing the pressure to an unsafe level and survive the amount of compression and decompression cycles that a car would need. Composite materials are great, but tend to degrade over time. That is one of the advantages of heavy steel in industrial compressed air tanks, once they reach a certain level of wear, the steel stops degrading, giving it a much longer lifespan than composites.
of course, in fact mdi is a scam, going on for more than two decades, the only achievement of their "air motor" is to pump money out of very dumb investors. This "technology" which isnt one, is totally useless because the whole cycle efficiency is extremely low and compressed air is totally unpractical as an energy storage medium in a vehicle. In i think just compressing air at 350 bar is alreayd less efficient than any lelectrical vehicle, which tells a lot, they would need a motor with 200% efficiency (lol) to compensate for the very bad efficiency of the first conversion (-compressing air to 350 bar) which of course is not going to append.
A lot of people don’t realize how air was used for all kinds of different things from filling your tire to mining carts that don’t use electronics and use air instead to prevent explosions from sparks
Compressed air is not uncommon for forklifts in large food warehouses where pollution is not wanted. This way the pollution is transferred to electric power stations or outdoor petrol powered compressors
yeah, with an efficiency way lower than any other energy storage medium. That is why electrical vehciles are never going to be a thing, because the total cycle efficiency is extremely low, and the usage is extremely impractical.
that 4x energy density in compressed air compared to li-ion is a BS
Well... Air is quite light.
Indeed. And a thermodinamically efficient designs requires thermal storage and two heat powerful exchangers at minimum. Batteries have problems, but at least are feasible.
Compressed air has great POWER density, which is why it used in industry. Energy density, both volumetric and gravimetric is dreadful.
@@ansgaryeysymontt7155 High pressure air tanks aren't quite as light.
@@tz8785 even 2mpa tanks are quite heavy.
@@ansgaryeysymontt7155 that what ppl usually think before they see 1 atm crush steel tanks. and air really resists hard getting to high pressure. and tank w8 should also be counted
When I was a kid, I had this toy that utilized compressed air for its 'fuel'. It had this tiny tire pump that filled up the plastic chamber. And I've always wondered if on a far more compressed basis, if this notion could be utilized for real cars. Another thing I have questioned is if those air pumps that can be found at most fueling stations could be utilized for 'refueling' such cars. If so, it would be amazing to refuel at 25 cents to 1 dollar... or even find those gem stations that still have free air. However, I always figured the storage capacity was far too low to permit such a car to surpass two miles per tank. Nice to see that with a little more engineering...
what about self discharge though? if you also want to keep the heat to get more power from the expansion, you will have to insulate the tank, but even the best insulation isn't 100% perfect so you will lose power, also, there is the problem of thermal mass location, you can't compress in a central location and then use the air in the cars or whatever when the heat energy is stored in some sort of thermal battery located where the compressor is
you would need to use that heat energy somehow in the compression plant to save energy on compression.
Around 30 years ago there were all sorts of promises of compressed air cars going to market. In 2010 there were also big promises of compressed air scooters. I think we are still waiting for these ideas to make sense.
*The best part of AIR power storage is that air has a 12,000,000,000 year life span and does not need to be mined.*
what nonsense, compressing air is extremely inefficient by itself, and this inefficiency is increases if you compress at high pressures such as 350bar. So even if the motor was 100% efficiency, which is not the case obviously, using compressed air as a storage medium would still be inefficient. It is also totally impractical.
@@lo2740 *You need to go back to engineering school. If you compress air SLOWLY it stays much cooler than FAST compression mechines. Slow compression even to 6000 PSI breeds only a 5% loss of heat energy and is a good offset to buying a new $25,000 car battery every 10 years! With Compressed air the power curve is the same in year 1 as in year 100! No energy loses due to battery aging. Also the new air tanks wound with cheap Basalt fiber can handle 6000 PSI and are bullet-proof up-to a 30-06 bullet plus are half the cost of carbon fiber tanks. When they break they just leak and do not explode! 200 Gallons of air compressed to 6000 PSI can push a car or truck to 450 miles! Recharging takes only 60 seconds flat. Plus the cost of manufacturing the car drops by 45% since air is so easy to control with simple valves. Also since the engine can REV to 30,000 RPM the engine can be very small, powerful, cheap to manufacture! Recharging stations can also be built for only 20% of the cost of Electric charging stations! The company that offers the first AIR-CAR will steal the market and change the direction of popular energy storage forever!*
I see a few applications where turbos would help this. Great information, real cool video!
Augwind, an Israeli company, has developed a utility-scale isothermal compression solution for energy storage. I think the commercial name for this system is Air Battery.
So, heavier, less efficient, and more expensive. What's not to love?
Energy independence is to love. Eventually water/sulfur batteries along with super capacitors, also eliminate need for charging networks.
@@sampleoffers1978 When things are more expensive, they usually cost more resources.
A free market usually selects the best solutions unless there are externalities. Fossil fuels don't account for the damage of CO2 in their price for example.
@@jwrosenbury I'm not arguing pro carbon fuels. Though hydrocarbons should be possible to clone now and genetically insert in fast growing bacteria...then pressurize if necessary, to make fuel at scale. That also can be used in efficient open air carbon capture machines. Carbon capture should be convertible back into fuel with enzymes etc...My real point though was yes, the pneumatic engines are less efficient and might cost more, but should eliminate carbon fuel dependence for the vehicles directly, resulting in energy independence despite early heavy investment. Grids can use gravity battery, pressurized heat storage etc, no problem with supply. That was my point, and joined with emerging battery/super capacitor technology, the efficiency should vastly improve also.
Amazing
I had read, years ago, that Thomas Edison built and used an air powered motorcycle... or maybe more accurately an air assist bicycle. I can't find a reference to it on the internet the moment, however. As I remember, it would use the air motor to help power up hills, but when going downhill he could throw a valve that would then use those air motors as compressors to put some pressure back in the tanks.
the low pressure problem can be pixed by using motores designet for lov pressure and highg aireflow, so you can storage like 240atm and the motor runs at max 4atm with a pressure regualtor the problem is fixed. you have the same tourqe and power until your 240 atm tank is at 4atm
1to240bar: work
240to4bar: 0 work
4bar to 1 bar: less work
@@heilundwissen9833 i cant see the problem, as long the pressure level of the tank is higher than the set 4 atm, you will have constant 100 Work but if the pressure level goes under 4 atm you Tank will be close empty and you will quickly start losing pressure
Use your handpump for 240 bar. After let expand 4bar. Big input, small useful output.
@@heilundwissen9833 what do you mean ?
Thanks
Storage system in wind turbines is the most promising usage for this. The air should be compressed by mechanical, not electrical, force of each turbine, stored in a single chamber for multiple turbines to increase volume to surface ratio, and then be used to drive a ducted turbine with 97% efficiency.
What of the thermal losses in compressing the air?
@@thedubwhisperer2157i mean the efficiency of a ducted Pelton turbine is 97%. But that of a whole cycle of compressing, then semi-adiabatically storing for 12 hours (chamber walls should be well insulated), then decompressing, - is much lower, maybe 75%. But this number is still excellent.
I remember studies of 40-50 yrs ago, where compressed air from direct compression via windturbines was stored underground, in abandoned salt or coal mines. Obviously not an ultra high pressure system, but with cubic miles of storage, low speed positive displacement motors driving generators seemed to have promise. But crude oil was like 8 bucks a barrel, coal was 25 bucks a ton..
@@roberttammerawitchey4652yeah, we should consider all options of storage for a set of 4 2MW wind turbines, including the option of no storage system:
1. The cost of a Li-Ion accumulator system of 40MWh (~10 hours of half full load work) is $10 million ($250 for each kWh).
2. The cost of 60 100m3 tanks for LNG transportation (assuming it is equivalent of 40MWh) is $0.9 million ($15,000 for each). Plus 4 air pumps and air ducts from the turbine top to the tanks underground worth maybe $1 million, plus some minor electronics and software for $0.1 million. The total is $2 million.
Now the gains from selling this amount of night work at day is maybe $1,200 ($0.03 x 40,000 kWh). Which results in ~$0.45 million per year, or 7-10 years (credit included) to just break even in the best option. Not very lucrative indeed. (((
Compressed air storage and thermal storage both allude to the wisdom of Isaac Arthur, "If brute force isn't working, then you aren't using enough".
Although you can't find even an archive of the article in the Fort Myers News press nor the Beach Breeze, I attended school with a guy who's father invented a car that ran on compressed air back in the 80's. He lived in Fort Myers Beach, had local news crew and Lee county sheriff department there all witnessing the car running. There were articles in the local papers about it. He was having trouble slowing it down, regulating the speed and such is what was holding things up for him. Once charged the tanks were continuously recharged as the car was driven. He was approached by some people in both the automotive and oil industry according to his son, was shortly after that found deceased. Misteriously so from what I heard. The man's last name was Collins. Never have heard anything more expect that he had very limited drawings, no actual blueprints of his design and that he had turned down very large offers to sell the car and any associated information. His son said that he wanted to finalize things to his own specific liking before deciding what to do with it. Oh, and the car is also gone along with all his notes and sketches or drawings without any knowledge of their whereabouts. True story whether anyone believes it or not. Strange that I can't even find an archive story about it while former classmates remember it as well. Maybe someone out there has a way of finding the original article. Would be really neat to read it again. It even mentioned that when two or three, can't remember exactly which, Lee county deputies pressed a length of 2x4 against the exhaust pipe while Mr Collins started the car, they were blown back a few feet against the garage door. I think he was demonstrating how much pressure the engine exausted from what I remember reading.
car: i have driving fun to not be bored and non attentive partially for saftey reasons, i do it by trying to get max miles per gallon and not wearing out the tires by using them to slow down a lot . its like old school endurance racing at more relaxed pace(if you arnt in a rush to get to places quickly), you minimize need for pitstops for fuel tires lubricant etc. for example, you preserve momentum around turns instead and speeding up again, but dont loose traction. . you brake and steer minimally but steadily, build up momentum downhills and at optimal rpm and power level according to bfsc chart for the engine (electric motors also have this ) . you maintain speed that is less than roughly 50 mile per hour (if car is more areodynamic, you can tolerate higher speed, but cutting through the wind becomes exponentially less effceint as you increase speed linearly). although climate crisis stuff isnt proven to be caused by humans or to be getting much worse near out times as happened before to humans, and the politics is obviosuly led by people who dont care about it, chemcial toxicity affecting food supply and sustainability og the buisness model of car design, are good reasons to do this if the money savings means nothing to you.
t weight is less safe t to people outside the car involved in crash, and unsafe to people inside car unless its more expensively built. weight exponentially worsens road longveity before repairs are needed, causing emission , monetary costs too, etc. not necessary: drive.google.com/file/d/1EG0dKAd3yuIRnND73W80v5i4CNe-EOzA/view?pli=1 pavementinteractive.org/reference-desk/design/design-parameters/equivalent-single-axle-load/
electric assited turbo hybrid probably better than ev or combustion only because: if you wanna lower emissions as long as possible as mass scale , you use a mix of combustion of non fully recyclable and currently rarely ever recycled, battery mass. whatever mix lasts longest. weight is less safe t to people outside the car involved in crash, and unsafe to people inside car unless its more expensively built. weight exponentially worsens road longveity before repairs are needed, causing emission , monetary costs too, etc. it also worsens tire dust emisions and brake dust emissions expoeentially: drive.google.com/file/d/1EG0dKAd3yuIRnND73W80v5i4CNe-EOzA/view?pli=1 pavementinteractive.org/reference-desk/design/design-parameters/equivalent-single-axle-load/ magnetic reversal news , tony heller, tom nelson www.corbettreport.com/ www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566750/ www.greencarcongress.com/2022/05/20220513-ea.html#:~:text=Emissions%20Analytics%E2%80%99%20results%20suggest%20around%2011%25%20of%20the,more%20than%20400%20times%20higher%20than%20tailpipe%20emissions . rumble.com/v1x59c7-the-luciferin-nwo-agenda-edward-m.-house-vsof-open-round-table-2022-09-14.html natural rubber and better brake metal can minimize problem to some extent
All you need is a powerful compressor a set of oversized injectors and the engine timed up to regulate with the compressor on engine stroke it's as simple as that😊😊😊😊😮 by using a rotary coupling compressor it should be no problem
Really neat. I always wanted to be a pneumatic enthusiast.
Me too. I always wanted to combine it with my love for travel and become a 'nomadic pneumatic enthusiast'🤪
@@morgantisdale6928 That’s really funny. I’ll have to tell the guy who made the video, (since I know him)
A French or Italian company sold small trucks that ran on compressed air, quite cheap, 5000 euro +-, but air went out of it, probably cos they were a bit slow.
very promising development. I cannot wait to see how this technology can perform if given enough refinement.
lol, compressed air vehicles is a scam going on for more than two decades, the only achievement of this "technology" has always been to pump dumb "investors" money. You will never see air powered car because the total cyle efficiency is extremely low, way lower than electric or thermal.
Heard of Di Pietro motor a few years ago, ever since dreamt of a compressed air powered motorcycle
Great video.
It would be of more benefit to adapt ICE engines to pure oxigen by instaling membrane filters for nitrogen... it would give much more efficient combustion and also with much less of harmful exhaust gases
Parafin!!? Pretty amazin, still collect candles where ever I go, gonna build an heat exchanger one day I m pretty sure.
You could use the compressed air to heat water, or heat the home during winter, and then cooling during summer. And you can use zeolite to heat the air supplied to the generator.
I remember seeing a thing about compressed-air personal vehicles in the early 1990s, and even then it was something that was on its second or third try. Interesting how this idea keeps coming around. Maybe someday it'll stick.
Its because other technology's emerge or improve that can eliminate some of the drawbacks that made this energy storage and propulsion less adequate in the past.
Not likely. Very inefficient
Tomy brought a tou out in the 80s , hoom dorm !!
It keeps appearing and disappearing because it is hideously inefficient. Sorry.....
I think we're overlooking an obvious energy source- hamsters on wheels
I remember getting excited about MDI and air compressed transport. As soon as I realized how quickly batteries were developing the future became obviously electric.
SO TRUE.
I can definitely see this working together with hybrid cars to get its start. I dont see why not
i think if they added a vacuum chamber, the energy exchange would improve. fully expanded air is easier to compress then partially expanded air. like using hot water to make ice cubes. also using whirlpool effects the transfer air would help, like spinning a bottle of liquid and turning it upside down to empty it.
Ah it’d be better if we had hybrid renewable machines with pedal power options so people can exercise while they drive.
Technically we could chemically utilize air for energy since biological life already does that, but idk how we’d get a nonbiological hard tech construct to do that.
I always wanted to adapt an air compressor/ drive motor into a log trailer and store the air compressed by using it to brake , and then release it when pulling adverse grades.
The air could be stored in the reach tube and the compressor/ drive attached to one of the trailer axles, thus providing more drive traction as well.
Chrysler tried to make a hydraulic accumulator for buses some time ago. Too complicated and heavy. You need a motor/compressor in addition to your prime mover power train.
11:22 , this problem can also be addressed through spring loaded accumulators which is not new.
9:52 is there really no fire hazards related to it? i was under the impression that compressed air was very flammable, unless you pull the o2 out. even if the air isn't flammable, would the benefit not be outweighed, by the fact that if ruptured it could explode?
No, air is not combustible at any pressure.
Compress slowly and cool.
The only serious downside is a compressed airtank. Have you seen, how it can explode with 300-400 bar?
drive on h2so4 electroplating batteries, any electroplating metal, as metal-air battery, carbon rod-felt electrodes, recharging the sulfate to metal and h2so4, like znso4/h2so4 and zn+o2, yes rechargeable zinc-air battery, the only downside is some amount of self-discharge because of zn+h2so4 -> zno2 + h2, but either the electrolyte can be removed when not in use or use some other electroplateable metal that will not react fast/at-all with h2so4, like tin. also if you dont want/need to recharge, then baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) water will work for iron, zinc, aluminium, tin, as single use, or single recharge, with silver plate as the air-electrode.
Every wind mill should be producing compressed air and a whole new piping network should be made.
Sweet.
I'm confused! According to the video they used parts from homedepot? I can't Identify the actual air motors or where I would get one for my own builds? can anyone help me find a parts list and supplier listing?
I think the T-34 tank had a pneumatic starter engine, just in case the electric starter failed.
CNG has been used widely in NZ since 1980, and is cheap and efficient.
I didn't know how inefficient the compress air can be, I always asume that was a good idea especially for wind turbines, but the heat thing is complicated. It looks like that kind of car will have more moving parts than a usual car, electricity is much simpler
They are very inefficient
Interesting...
i found mdi in 2007. dont forget regusi air in south america.
Sources in description would be great
The major Is flaw I see with compressed ais that you don't get it for free. You have to compress that air. You have to invest all the horsepower into the car before you go. The same as gasoline. However, the storage tank weighs a lotmore. 4000 pounds storage system using 2 inch line. I can i'm pretty sure that storage system would weigh several hundred pounds. And the reason I suggest a 2 inch storage host system or storage line system. It's because that way you can wrap it around the vehicle in a flat package as opposed to a large tank. Running i'm not ungodly length. A single tank round twenty gallons and volume would be 3 to 4 inches and your existing gas tank and yeld about ( this is a very rough gess ) 12 mlies to compressed gl of air. Of course, keep in mind that you don't only be able to use the top 2500 pounds of that compressed air. Cause once it all turn to a gas
You lose power rapidly. Finally, a major concern is that nitrogen liquifies that about 2500 pounds oxygen liquifies at about 3300 hydrogen. That's your 4000 pounds.
I really wouldn't bother because it's really expensive to get 20 gallons of compressed air at that level. It'll cost a lot more than gasoline. The greenis alternative is natural gas. It's not only good for the environment. It's good for your engine producing carbon dioxide and water, which is really safe for the environment. And it's good for the ozone too, because the natural gas doesn't get up there and break down ozone Just thoughts from aboard old man.