Advantages
The principal advantages of an air powered vehicle are:
- Refueling can be done at home using an air compressor or at service stations. The energy required for compressing air is produced at large centralized plants, making it less costly and more effective to manage carbon emissions than from individual vehicles.
- Compressed air engines reduce the cost of vehicle production, because there is no need to build a cooling system, spark plugs, starter motor, or mufflers.
- The rate of self-discharge is very low opposed to batteries that deplete their charge slowly over time. Therefore, the vehicle may be left unused for longer periods of time than electric cars.
- Expansion of the compressed air lowers its temperature; this may be exploited for use as air conditioning.
- Reduction or elimination of hazardous chemicals such as gasoline or battery acids/metals
- Some mechanical configurations may allow energy recovery during braking by compressing and storing air.
- Sweden’s Lund University reports that buses could see an improvement in fuel efficiency of up to 60 percent using an air-hybrid system But this only refers to hybrid air concepts (due to recuperation of energy during braking), not compressed air-only vehicles.
Read more about this topic: Compressed Air Car
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