Combined Pneumatic/Hydraulic Vehicle

尽管电池技术和半导体的创新将继续逐步压低可再生能源汽车的价格，但在未来10年里，这种技术生产出一种适合第三世界(甚至是第一世界较贫穷地区)使用的汽车的希望微乎其微。在至少十年的时间里，电动汽车比ICE汽车要贵得多(而且还会继续)，事实上，目前半导体和锂的价格正在大幅上涨。寻找替代能源的重大缺陷已被证明是难以克服的：氢气；能量密度低，燃料电池甚至比电池更贵；液压；储能潜力低，产生大量热量，导致通过冷却损失能量；气动；系统中的能量损失表示为冷(当重新使用存储的能量时)，额外的能量在加热系统以防止结冰时损失。该项目试图为液压/气动组合系统提供概念验证(POC)，使用“空气电池”来存储能量。这一过程可能不如电池/电动汽车那么高效，但它的批量建造将显著降低成本。储气罐的制造成本非常低，液压/气动泵的制造成本大大低于内燃机发动机和电池电动驱动。此外，第三世界的很大一部分地区居住在风通常充足的沿海地区，风力空压机是一种相对便宜的机器，可以为这些车辆的使用者提供免费能源。由于这项技术没有确切的汽车先例，很难准确地模拟这一过程。因此，我们的计划是建立一个独立的POC，它将使我们能够准确地测量系统的输入和输出能量，这将帮助我们建立所需的数据库，以便为未来的开发准确模拟驱动系统。

Whilst innovation in battery technology and semiconductors will continue to incrementally drive down the price of renewable energy cars, there is little hope in the next ten years of this technology producing a vehicle suitable for use in the third world (and indeed in the poorer parts of the first world). Electric cars are (and will continue to be) significantly more expensive than ICE cars for at least another decade, indeed currently the price of semiconductors and lithium are increasing substantially. The search for alternatives has included significant drawbacks which have proved to be difficult to overcome: Hydrogen; The energy density is low and fuel cells are even more expensive than batteries; Hydraulic; energy storage potential is low and significant heat is generated, leading to energy loss through cooling; Pneumatic; energy loss in the system is expressed a cold (when re-using the stored energy), additional energy is lost in heating the system to prevent it freezing up.This project seeks to produce a Proof of Concept (POC) for a combined hydraulic/pneumatic system, using an 'air battery' to store energy.This process may not be as efficient as a battery/electric vehicle, but it will be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to build in volume. The air storage tanks can be fabricated very cheaply and hydraulic/pneumatic pumps are substantially cheaper to build than ICE engines and battery electric drives. In addition a significant portion of the third world inhabits coastal regions where wind is usually plentiful, a wind powered air compressor is a relatively cheap machine that would provide free energy to the users of these vehicles.Since this technology has no exact automotive precedent, it is difficult to accurately simulate the process. Therefore, the plan is to build a free standing POC which will enable us to accurately measure the input and output energy of the system which will help us build the database required to accurately simulate the drive system for future development.