The motorbike that runs on air

[LivinLOS]

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/the- ... 1mwq2.html

[offtopic:35fhnjil]Aussie-designed compressed air motorcycle offers an alternative to pump and plug.

An Australian-designed motorcycle that runs purely on air has just been revealed.

The "O2 Pursuit" compressed air-powered motorbike has been designed by RMIT industrial design student Dean Benstead. Instead of a regular petrol powered engine, the O2 Pursuit uses an Australian-designed compressed air engine developed by EngineAir Australia.

The bike is about the size of a regular 250cc moto-cross two-wheeler, and uses a number of body components donated by Yamaha Australia.

Benstead says the concept offers motorbike riders some fuel for thought when it comes to filling up their rides.

"I wanted to explore the viability of compressed air as an alternative fuel, and my childhood experiences riding dirt bikes led me to design the motocross bike based around the Engineair engine," Benstead says.

He says his next model would likely take a different form, and would also use more high-tech lightweight parts to keep the weight down so it's "comparable to a heavy-duty mountain bike".

The bike will be on display at the Sydney Motorcycle and Scooter Show from November 25-27.[/offtopic:35fhnjil]

http://smh.drive.com.au/photogallery/co ... 1mwqg.html

Goes without saying that creating the potential energy in the compressed air still creates pollution somehwere in the chain, but an interesting concept.

I wonder what kind of range and speed / power it can put out. As urban transport in competition to pushbikes or small scoots its a new twist.

 

[KTMphil]

It's like all these people that have bought battery cars think they have no emissions, they forget about the coal fired power station belching out smoke that creates the energy to charge the batteries!


Will be interesting to see the net-net save in emissions.

 

[Hassman]

There is a company in France (or maybe it is Italy) that produces small delivery vans and people movers for urban use that all have air engines, according to something I saw on Discovery channel some time ago the performance was not bad at all -more than good enough for city traffic.

As for the energy used in charging the batteries or air tanks it is true that somewhere (hopefully far away) there is a power plant belching out fumes, but the vast difference is in efficiency -a gasoline engine in a car is about 25-30% efficient (I assume that in a motorbike it is far worse -maybe only 15-20% efficiency), a diesel engine in a car is up to 40% efficient and a stationary diesel (such as one running a generator) is up to 60% efficient.

A coal, gas or nuclear power plant has approximately the same efficiency as a stationary diesel.

Hassman