[SEL] Compressed Air Car? -- OT

[Elden DuRand]

Arnie:

I don't doubt that the car will run fine.  Range and acceleration are questions.

Years ago, air was used to power a few underground mine railways and some above ground trains that had to run and sit idle in long tunnels.  Those uses, though were not for economy but for safety from fire and fumes associated with steam locomotives.

What I -don't- believe is the economy of operation.  It takes a LOT of energy to compress air so if you add up the ineffeciencies of generating and transferring the electrical power to the compressor plus the ineffeciency of compressing the air itself PLUS the ineffeciency of the air engine, I have serious doubts the idea is practical.

Ahh, well - that's just my opinion.

Take care - Elden
http://www.oldengine.org/members/durand 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
> [mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com]On
>  Behalf Of
> fero_ah at city-net.com
> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 08:03 AM
> To: Stationary Engine List; Old_Engine
> Subject: [SEL] Compressed Air Car? -- OT
> 
> 
> Hiya Folks,
> 
> There are no engineering details provided (beyond 
> a three minute "fill up"
> time), but this article has my bullshit detector 
> clanging...
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7241909.stm
> 
> See ya,  Arnie