Air Powered Cars

Thanks to the soaring prices of oil fuels, people have to look for other sources of fueling their vehicles. The best technological brains of our world have come up with an amazing solution to the oil crisis-an air powered car! Can you think of a more suitable fuel than air that is available everywhere for free, and that which does not cause any pollution? Till now it was only cycles that were powered by air.

There are some air-powered cars that solely depend on air for their fuel needs, while there are the ones that use a mixture of both air and some conventional fuel like gasoline, diesel, or ethanol. The air-powered cars also couple air with electrical energy to fuel a car. These cars that have a mixture of fuels are called hybrid vehicles. They usually come with a regenerative breaking mechanism. One of the pioneers of implementing the air driven fuel technology for cars are Tata Motors. TataOneCAT, the first of its kind is a compressed air car that is expected to hit the showrooms by the end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009. The compressed air technology is being used by many other car manufacturers as well. So, in due course of time you can expect to see some really eco-friendly cars plying on the roads.

The air car has already been described in some of the science and technology literature as a futuristic car that is a solution to the present day oil and pollution crises. It is considered to be at par with the electric and solar powered cars. The compressed air cars are expected to not to emit any exhaust gases and hence are a major step toward combating the looming global warming threat.

The design of the cars is not much different from the conventionally fuelled cars. Even the air powered cars have engines. But in plalce of oil, the fuel takns are filled with compressed air maintained at a pressure of 300 bar. The storage tank is not made up of any metal but is made up of carbon fiber which keeps the engine storage tank light in weight but at the same time sturdy enuogh to create the optimum pressure for the air in it.

The energy conversion principle of the compressed air cars is pretty novel though the idea was concieved a long time ago. The air from the storage tank is not ignited along with the fuel to produce hot gases that expand generating mechinical energy to power the engine. The air powered cars are just driven by the mechanical energy exterted by the air that is released toward the engine from highy pressurised conditions.

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