The mystery of car which works 100 % with air is still valid. We have been starting it for 200 years. If this unthinkable car managed to surprise you, you can’t miss what comes next.
The electric cars They are marketed with the promise of driving an emission vehicle. However, it presents clear contraindications with respect to its price, materials, or recharge time.
In this context, hydrogen engines seem the lifeguard most for humanity. They only emit water vapor, but the hydrogen must be produced in some way and many of the processes necessary to make themselves are pollutants.
Air car: utopia or reality?
It seems that, for now, the human being has not yet found its ideal mobility form, so it continues to explore different options. One of the alternatives with history is car driven by a compressed air engine, which performs a simpler process than hydrogen production.
Although it may seem like a utopia, this idea was touched with the company MDI and Tata Motors that launched a project of these characteristics. The big problem presented by the different forms of mobility is how to obtain stored energy to use it later. This must be an easy energy to replace, transport and, in addition, it must be available.
Using compressed air as a way to store energy is not a current concept. In fact, it is an idea that appeared even before automotive. Already in 1838, that is, 187 years ago, two French engineers (Andraud and Tessie de Montay) made the great debut of the compressed air vehicle in Chaillot.
However, it was not until 1873 that these pieces were applied at the practical level. A series of French municipalities began to use trams driven by compressed air engines. It did not completely evident, since in some cases the service persisted for four decades.
This invention also reached mining and drilling some tunnels, such as the famous San Gardardoto prevent the danger represented by explosion engines in such unique contexts.
The compressed air car has been present for 200 years, but its time has not yet arrived
In 1903, the model appeared Liquid Air in the United Statesgiving rise to the marketing of a limited number of cars They worked with compressed air. Willy Maybach He was one of the great interested in this form of propulsion. He was one of the pioneers of the German automotive, by the hand of Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz.
He founded his own luxury car firm. In 1906 he brought to light a car that used this energy source, which is not fuel. After this creation, several attempts to launch this technology emerged. Louis C. Kiser He wanted to show the viability of the air in 1925 in America making modifications in an explosion engine to move with compressed air.
1932 was another year pointed out in history, this time by Roy J. Mayerswho got a patent to convert cars of time in vehicles capable of operating with compressed air. Your model Air Motors He could achieve 55 kilometers/ hour and his promoter said he held 800 kilometers of autonomy.
Last known compressed air car
In addition to the attempt to Tatathere was also a Korean piece, the Energywho took a Daewoo nuance as a base. The last executed attempt bears the seal of Citroën. It was more than a decade, in 2013, when the firm presented to the world its hybrid c3 model called Hybrid Air.
It did not have an electric motor or batteries, but with a pneumatic engine driven by compressed air. Its urban consumption was 3 liters per 100 kilometers and could travel 70 kilometers circulating only with compressed air. However, no more was known about the compressed air engine to this day.
Disadvantages of the compressed air engine
Although in the first instance trusting a compressed air engine seems a good idea, it also involves challenges and limitations such as a limited scope compared to other known models, the lack of a recharge infrastructure to implement it in mass and a usual limited power.
With almost 200 years of history, the car Compressed air has not yet managed to rise as one more market option. However, as technology progresses this concept can resurface again. Meanwhile, the open debate on the viability of electric cars continues.
