OQAPA - Compressed Air Vehicle

A Compressed Air vehicle concept:

A Compressed Air vehicle is being developed by our sister organization in Quebec:
APUQ [L'association de Promotion des Usages de la Quasiturbine].

Pneumatic systems have a big advantage because they are cheap and don't require impractically expensive battery maintenance.

A 40kg 25 cubic meter compressed air cylinder the same size as the steel tanks used in natural gas vehicles can store about 4 kwh of energy.
Assuming (conservatively) that 50% of this energy can be recovered, the density would be about 2kwh/40kg = 50 watt-hours per kg.

A compressed air engine can provide great torque and power for its weight, but only for a short time.

A compressed air motor provides for powerful acceleration while not adding significantly to system weight.
A compressed air system could provide a powerful short-distance vehicle Power Booster to increase acceleration performance.

The biggest obstacles is that the engine (unless provided with elaborate heat exchangers) will becomes cold due to the adiabatic expansion of the air.
This the engine will not be substantially efficient if high pressures are used.

The compressed air motor and electric motor of an air hybrid vehicle can be interconnected by a clutch so the car can recharge its air reservoir and its battery and operate separately or together as required.