Air Hybrids

[Nik]

This (brief) New Scientist article covers the use of compressed air as an energy store for hybrid ICE vehicles. The advantage over a battery is the rate at which energy can be stored when decelerating.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/02/green-machine-hybrid-cars-as-l.html

 

[doug]

Hmm.. depends on the specific application. They claim higher input (regen-like) power. Other things to consider are output power, storage (energy) capacity, size/weight of the system, and overall (output/input) efficiency.

My guess is that the storage capacity is rather low. But for a city bus that is stopping frequently, it probably only really needs the capacity to store the energy from one stop to help get going to the next for there to be a worthwhile benefit.

 

[Talkredius]

IMHO power from air has no future at all in cars. In industrial usage air is the most inefficient and costly power supply when you had to use it. For the OEM the components are very cheap, that's the reason why you find them in machines