What Next? [RE-wrenches]

[Jeff Yago]

Has anyone else heard about the new French car (it's got to be a
Citroen!) that runs on compressed air?


My first job as a design engineer over 30 years ago was with a firm that
designed and built compressed air powered mobile equipment to be used in
areas with danger of explosive gases (no electric motors or wiring allowed
that could make a spark)

The one thing I can tell you is that it took far more cubic feet of
compressed air and energy to compress this air than you could ever imagine.
We found the same vehicle moving the same distance could do the same thing
with far less energy using a standard DC traction motor and battery bank,
but most applications did not allow any electric equipment. Compressed air
motors and compressors are not energy efficient due to the high energy
losses as heat.

Yes it was quick to fill the mobile tank from a larger air storage tank due
to the large pressure difference, but a very large compressor had to run a
very long time to charge this tank up again.

Some had air storage tanks as big as a truck, and some required so much
compressed air for extended drive distances that we had to use a "tether"
air hose.

My motto is - "if it sounds too good to be true . . . . . . ."

Jeff Yago

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