Air Cars
Cars that run on compressed air:
Comment by MJ - Great potential. What issues does it solve? 1. Fuel storage via air. 2. Clean burn. Disadvantage: Air is not so efficient - they are claiming 70% expansion efficiency, with compression up to 60% efficiency - so at best about ~40% efficient. If compressor is driven by a 30% fuel engine, that is about 10% overall efficiency.
Comparison from the accessibility perspective: renewable char gas from coppiced permaculture plantings appears to be more sustainable in terms of local energy production from a living ecosystem. If energy is obtained from renewables such as wind, the air engine would be a great case for the car.
We should encourage them to opensource the air engine?Another question: how difficult is it to fabricate efficient air engines?
Summary of air cars: simply removing the point of fuel production to another place, while losing efficiency due to low efficiency of air conversion to motor power, at the benefit of a 'clean burn.'