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From LA to NY on one tank of gas? Come on! Must be an awfully large tank. A hybrid using a turbo diesel electric system is a possibility.

I like the idea of some type of Ojai energy zone but how to do it with no pollution?

Brian

If you watch the video, the small amont of petrol simply fuels the onboard air compressor that runs the engine. That's how they claim it can go cross country, the engine isn't burning the fuel directly.

carfree downtown ... Raymond ... and fifty percent less traffic and speed valley-wide ... now that would begin to make for a child-safe and bicycle/pedestrian friendly valley!!

electric vehicles of course pollute more than gasoline powered ones ... obviously we need to reduce the size and numbers of our vehicles (total mass movement, energy consumption) by a factor of ten ... if we are to have a chance of earthly life beyond this decade ...

still, I CAN see an argument for a compressed air engine if the air-compression process is more efficient than the gas-combustion-engine technology which is very inefficient (heat and friction producing.)

it wouldn't be a major advance, yet still a step towards change and sustainability.

as if we LOVED our Mother Earth, our beautiful children, and wondrous world family ...

Millennium Twain

Raymond, great post! Of the two, the Australian one seems the more efficient. Leave it to an Italian to come up with a pretty engine. This is the first I've heard of the compressed air drives. Now that I've seen it, I can't believe I haven't heard of or seen it before. It seems that batteries, being powered by solar along with regenerative braking, could power the air compressor and recharge the carbon fiber air cylinders on the go for a greatly increased range. This is exactly the kind of thinking we need to proceed into the future. The piston driven, low efficiency, high heat engine we have now is well over a hundred and fifty years old. Let's evolve already! All we need to do now is get everybody out of their 9 MPG Ford Excursions and Hummer H2s. Oops, did I say evolve. doesn't look good for us.

As to a car-free downtown. I'm all for it if we can find a way to reroute HWY 150 which also happens to be Ojai's main street. The State will not allow us to stop east west traffic on the 150, so we'll have to reroute traffic somehow which would kind of defeat the purpose. Catch 22.

Great post.

There's an abundance of creativity just waiting to be implemented.

The problem is our moral evolution and political consciousness.

See my post under the beautiful Indian woman, Arundhati Roy, above, for what I'm trying to do to raise political consciousness in Ojai.

Everytime you make a transition to one form of energy to another there is a loss of energy. Another factor affecting mileage, or efficiancy, is weight. Using the carbon fiber high pressure air tanks is a good idea because they weigh much less than steel. In fact if you want to get better mileage with you car only fill your tank up half way, the decreased weight will help your car get better mileage. I don't think the compressed air system is more efficiant that a high mileage car like a Honda.

Brian

This is an exciting post that gives me more hope for a more immediate use of alternatives.

I've always wondered about the idea of compressed air vehicles and their efficiency. Having used pneumatic tools, I knew of the power of compressed air, but waiting for an empty tank to fill, the lack luster compressors and their inability to keep up with use,(Some devices better than others) and the noise, I had my doubts.

The Australian design is so revolutionary in energy distribution, it may be competitive to the overly touted Hydrogen motors.

What Arnold and many who push Hydrogen, don't give, is the whole picture: The cost in extracting hydrogen (for hydrogen is not found in it's elemental form, but in compounds), and an appropriate source. Part of the cost of extraction is determined on what is the source of the hydrogen. Most sources applied for are hydrocarbon compounds: crude oil, propane, natural gas and certain minerals, including shale and eventually the saturated sands of Canada (which have more oil in their sand than Saudi Arabia). We are not limited to these applications, it's that they are the easiest at present. But most of you probably thought first of Water as the applied source. Well, your right. I think it will be a combination of sources as the Japanese are doing.

(The Japanese are farther than anyone in extracting Hydrogen and it's distribution. Part of what they are doing is using commercial byproducts as hydrogen sources. Their whole future economy depends on it's development, and they know it.)

So, you have the source as a factor, now there is the method of extracting.

Electrolysis is exciting and has been around for decades. Our early submarines used electrolysis to make air from sea water,for breathing, to run the diesel engines,leaving hydrogen as a byproduct (this byproduct can be used in any combustible engine design, and I believe it was used for engines and generators while underwater)-when safe, they would surface and run the generators to charge the batteries. These devices worked so well, one of those 1940s machines still is being used today-2007. It cost money to produce the electricity as we all see every month. Most electricity is being produced from burning 'Hydrocarbon', then is used to extract the hydro from the carbon. ?Do you see the problem?

The Japanese are working hard on a Sulfur Iodine Cycle that is 50 percent more efficient than electrolysis. It looks like decades before commercial production on a mass scale.

One in use today is Steam Reforming. Again the Japanese, oh yeah, Americans, are in on this.Again it is separation of the hydro from the carbon.

Still another route to hydrogen is Gasification. One application of this process involves using Biomass,(specifically sewage, along with all decaying material).

Another is capturing hydrogen released from algae during Solar Radiation exposer, you know, when the Sun is out.

Hydrogen will be one of the most used and available sources of energy, But it will be awhile for this reality to be. The hydrogen cars of today are not even close to what we will need or be able to use.In other words, we are a long way off.

Another potential for hydrogen is Cold Fusion: "Sun in a Bottle". No endeavor for energy research has cost as much as to how to create Cold Fusion, for it's potential is unlimited energy at little cost in money and little if any pollution.

I only listed a few applications being developed, Hydrogen only one of many avenues that will lead to a cleaner world for us and our kids. This is an exciting time to be in.

In the short term, Compressed Air cars sound more immediate in application. Can't wait to see one.

?Did I manage to put you to sleep?