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Has anyone looked into a pneumatic powered bicycle? Is it way less efficient than a chain drive? What if you pedaled to compress air into a reserve tank that wa
by JudgeWapner 7y ago
Has anyone looked into a pneumatic powered bicycle? Is it way less efficient than a chain drive? What if you pedaled to compress air into a reserve tank that was then discharged to somehow propel the wheel(s)? That could soften the peaks and valleys of power and allow perhaps for regeneration during braking. With a large enough tank you could save up power during plains to propel you up large hills.
- ezzaf 7y agoChain drive can be up to 98.6% efficient, you'd have a hard time beating that. http://pages.jh.edu/~news_info/news/home99/aug99/bike.html http://pages.jh.edu/~news_info/news/home99/aug99/bike.html
- extrapickles 7y agoIts much more efficient to store the energy as electricity. Compressing Air, and using a pneumatic motor has about 5-7% total efficiency.
- Johnny555 7y agoI'd think that a pneumatic bottle would have to be very large, and/or very heavy to store enough energy for a useful return, the heat lost from the compressed air would lower efficiency, and an air turbine that can provide usable power over a wide range of pressures from the bottle would add additional weight and contribute to inefficiency. The fact that there are few compressed air hybrids is probably a good sign that it's not significantly better than batteries. Few electric bikes even use regenerative braking, it's generally not worth the weight and complexity.