Air powered bike

[RandyO]

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680821/a...urce=twitter#1

[xxaarraa]

Pretty cool! I have heard murmurs of compressed air powered cars, but first time about a motorcycle!

[Krazy Again]

I would actually love one with a rechargeable lithium battery for lights to make it road legal. Actually would consider something like that for a daily commuter if there was a way to refill the air tanks myself.

[GNTurbo6]

I read something about an air powered bicycle and they have to use scuba tanks to have enough go power. 3000 PSI in those things, so refilling them is no joke.

[golden chicken]

What's it take to rupture one of those tanks? There's a lot of potential energy in there.

[caddydaddy]

I read something about an air powered bicycle and they have to use scuba tanks to have enough go power. 3000 PSI in those things, so refilling them is no joke.

Yes, SCUBA tanks are extremely dangerous to refill. When things go bad, people die! I'll stick with gasoline.

[caddydaddy]

What's it take to rupture one of those tanks? There's a lot of potential energy in there.

They are pretty durable, but if you wrecked that bike, there's a good chance you could rupture the side. If that happened, it'd be like a bomb went off!

[stoinkythepig]

Here's how the motor works: http://www.engineair.com.au/index.ph...&id=2&Itemid=2 When I was the video of the bike which offers a brief glimpse of the motor, I was certain it was based on Wankel rotary engine, I was wrong.

Some thoughts:

Pretty neat idea, I like the concept of using air as the bearing material.

I assume it actually runs at a very modestly regulated air pressure, otherwise power would tail off immediately as tank pressure dropped.

I can imagine a hot-rodded version of one of these designed to operate at very high pressure and volume, for a very short period of time, being perfect for drag racing.

I wonder if air tools would work better with this type of motor.

I wonder how well one of these would work being driven by engine exhaust gas; could be a great way to extract more rotational energy from a typical internal combustion engine. Unlike a turbo driving the inlet pressure up, you could simply couple the output of this to the crankshaft (perhaps through reduction gears to keep the air motor small and fast spinning) kind of like the low pressure section on a two stage steam turbine you'd find on a WWII ship.

[Falko]

Compressed air is one of if not the most inefficient industrial processes. Good systems can do 6 CFM per kW. I don't see this as being an efficient machine overall. Unless you create compressed air with alt energy or something.

[RandyO]

who cares about efficiency, air is free, zero negative impact environmentally, no pollution, no disposal of worn out batteries

I'm impressed with the range on a scuba tank

is compressed air container dangerous, what did people think of gasoline tanks in mobile vehicles a hundred years ago,

is a scuba tank any more dangerous than a fuel tank in a Ford Pinto

at least yo can fill up a compressed air tank faster than you can recharge a battery

[RandyO]

I can imagine a hot-rodded version of one of these designed to operate at very high pressure and volume, for a very short period of time, being perfect for drag racing.

.

Like what NASCAR crews do to air wrenches for changing tires

[TheIglu]

who cares about efficiency, air is free, zero negative impact environmentally, no pollution, no disposal of worn out batteries

Zero negative impact until you figure in the actual energy required to fill the tank.

[RandyO]

Zero negative impact until you figure in the actual energy required to fill the tank.

electricity from solar panels at your house

there is no direct environmental impact, even electric cars have bad juju when the car or batteries are junk

[golden chicken]

is a scuba tank any more dangerous than a fuel tank in a Ford Pinto

Is it? I'm only asking, not so much criticizing. Gasoline spilling and then igniting is mostly a fire...sometimes a really big fire, but did Pintos explode, sending shrapnel all over?

I imagine the tank itself is fairly robust, but tanks that have the regulator knocked off become missiles.

[RandyO]

but did Pintos explode, sending shrapnel all over?

I don't know that they sent shrapnel into victims, but did trap occupants in the fire, what difference does shrapnel make when yer already dead

[golden chicken]

Bystanders?

[Falko]

When I took my scuba cert, they showed several pictures of what mis-handling the tanks could do. One was a tank sized hole in the side of the bed of a pickup. The top was knocked off.
Another was a Z28 with most of the windows gone, tank was left in the warm florida sun in a car with the windows up. Tank was freshly filled and the rupture disc let go.
But I don't see these being anymore dangerous than say LP tanks or Hydrogen tanks for fuel cells. I just don't see you going real far on a scuba tank.

Compressed air production is about 15-20% efficient at best, and that is using 125 PSIG. Now we're talking 3000 PSIG? The compressed air motor is probably 60-70% efficient. So the overall process is 10-15% efficient use of the energy overall. Maintenance on high pressure air compressors isn't cheap either. I'll keep looking for alternatives...

[SVRACER01]

why not put a small gas (or even electric) powered compressor on the bike to fill the tank as you drive. a compressor would only kick on when needed and 1 or 2 gallons of gas in one of those would last for a pretty long time. on electricity, it could hypothetically run forever. just mount a stator to the end of the crank to produce a charge for the battery to run the compressor.

[G21forme]

why not put a small gas (or even electric) powered compressor on the bike to fill the tank as you drive. a compressor would only kick on when needed and 1 or 2 gallons of gas in one of those would last for a pretty long time. on electricity, it could hypothetically run forever. just mount a stator to the end of the crank to produce a charge for the battery to run the compressor.

And all that would be more efficient than say I don't know a small gasoline engine? How efficient could a gas engine powering an air compressor powering an air motor powering a stator powering a battery possibly be?

[PhilB]

why not put a small gas (or even electric) powered compressor on the bike to fill the tank as you drive. a compressor would only kick on when needed and 1 or 2 gallons of gas in one of those would last for a pretty long time. on electricity, it could hypothetically run forever. just mount a stator to the end of the crank to produce a charge for the battery to run the compressor.

Dude! You just invented perpetual motion! Will you share your billions with the rest of us?

PhilB

[SVRACER01]

And all that would be more efficient than say I don't know a small gasoline engine? How efficient could a gas engine powering an air compressor powering an air motor powering a stator powering a battery possibly be?

a small gas motor as just an air compressor wouldnt run all the time like a bike that runs on gas.
and youve combined 2 different ideas. it would be a gas powered compressor that feeds an air tank that runs an air powered engine OR an air powered engine that spins a stator that charges a battery that runs an electric compressor that feeds the air tank that runs the engine.
sounds pretty efficient to me

[RandyO]

I don't see the air powered bike being as viable for the street as it would be for off road riding, no electrical requirement, how many miles do you put on a dirtbike if you go out in the woods fer 5-6 hours ? seems like a tankfull 62 miles could provide and afternoon of fun. I would consider cost of purchase of compressor as part of cost of bike.

I wish I thought of inventing the perpetual motion engine

[Stromper]

I have run 5000 into some scott tanks, helped install some high pressure compressors at fire departments.

This would be great for riding in areas of flamable gases., Seriously though big installations like refineries don't want infernal combustion OR electrics. Usually give the crew bicycles to get around