• Question: will cars ever be run on air?

    Asked by abbytasker to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 22 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      hi abby no i don’t think cars will be able to run solely on air, sorry. They generally need some kind of energy source, like petrol which they can bun to release energy, or batteries. Or perhaps some cars in the future will use hydrogen fuel cells – these are like batteris but use hydrogen as a fuel and also oxygen (from the air!). They only produce water aswell, so pretty clean! But you still have the same problem as to where to get the hydrogen from – the commonest source at the moment is from breaking down oil!

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      Hi Abby
      Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Even though I’m no engineer, I can be reasonably confident that the answer is no. It’s true that the oxygen in the air could be used as fuel, but so much energy would be required to purify it that the process would be counter-productive.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      I don’t think so. Currently cars are powered by combustion engines which use air to break down complex molecules in fuel, the energy released from this combustion generates enough energy to make the car go. I don’t think it’s possible to get this sort of energy from air alone as it simply isn’t complex enough.

    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      Hi abby,
      Do you mean will air fuel them? or are you asking will they ever fly?
      I’ve said before that I don’t think flying cars are a good idea. As for fueling cars on air, its not really possible, although some new cars and buses run on hydrogen

      Eoin

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      Hi Abby. I doubt it, but I suppose it is possible. You would have to shoot a whole lot of air out of the back of the car to push it forward, although a similar things works better for boats – jet boats work by pushing water out the back to drive the boat forwards.

      Cars that run on something cleaner and better for the environment is definitely a really important thing though, and i know that there a lot of promising technologies in the works. Not my area of expertise though, unless malaria parasites start driving cars! 😉

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