Air Power Bike from O2

November 7th, 2011 by Zachary Shahan

I have to admit, I’m growing fond of little, alternative-fuel bikes. I’ve always been a fan of human-powered bikes, but I think these innovative alternatives have a place in the world, too. Here’s a story on sister site Gas2 on a new one:

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Tags: air powered bike, air powered bikes, alternative transportation, bikes, clean transport, green transport, green transportation, o2, quickies

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Anonymous

The problem with compressed air vehicles is that on the surface it looks like a good idea, but in reality, it has certain obstacles that really can’t be overcome. The biggest issue is that it’s really not very efficient. The energy it takes to compress and cool the air to a useable amount comes out to several times what a BEV uses. It’s really the same issue that you have with Hydrogen, compressing gas to high pressures takes a lot of energy.

The other issue is what happens when you use that compressed gas as a energy source, exoanding gas absorbes heat, you get icing and condensation around the equipment, and eventually you loose even more efficiency because the gas no longer fully expands because of the cold (it’s how refrigeration works). So the infamouse “air car” by Guy Nègre added a heater to help deal with the low efficiency caused by the expansion of compressed air.

Compressed air has relatively low energy density. Air at 30 MPa (4,500 psi) contains about 50 Wh of energy per liter. For comparison, a lead–acid battery contains 60-75 Wh/l. A lithium-ion battery contains about 250-620 Wh/l.
Early tests have demonstrated the limited storage capacity of the tanks; the only published test of a vehicle running on compressed air alone was limited to a range of 7.22 km.[9]
A 2005 study demonstrated that cars running on lithium-ion batteries out-perform both compressed air and fuel cell vehicles more than threefold at the same speeds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_air_car
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JL2VHELPPH2WEBC6IMSJ4WHY5U Kevin

I’ve put a lot of thought into our dirty electric grid and we can power the world with the same power plants we have online today we just need to switch the fuel they burn!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmoore001/sets/72157623631942524/
johnson

You still have electricity usage to compress the air and the “where did that come from conversation”, but I want one too! As far as the electricity issue, more and more power in the world is being produced by solar power and wind and we need to develop the transportation technologies to take advantage of it. Saying that electric vehicles don’t make sense because the electricity is “dirty” is not a going to help us move into the future. If you can afford it you can always install an equivalent amount of Photovoltaic generation to offset your transportation electricity usage.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JL2VHELPPH2WEBC6IMSJ4WHY5U Kevin
  
  I agree with you,,,”Saying that electric vehicles don’t make sense because the electricity is “dirty” is not a going to help us move into the future”. Green minded folks have to work together, there are a lot of good ideas and concept out there and we need to keep up the pressure together to make a difference.
- Anonymous
  
  Yeah, i agree. took me some time to get there. but that’s my thinking now