Potential energy, as we learnt back in school can be used to do plenty of things. Think of a rubber band used as a catapult to hurl around pieces of paper or a air gun to shoot rubber pellets. This is similar to what an Australian student, Dean Benstead, from RMIT university has done with a compressed air tank. He has used this compressed air tank as the sole source of propulsion to power a motorcycle, in this case a Yamaha WRX250 motocross bike. The O2 Pursuit is an air bike concept that runs on compressed air.
What Dean Benstead has done is, he has harnessed the potential energy that exists in a compressed air tank of 18 liters, into mechanical energy to power the O2 Pursuit motorcycle. 18 liters of compressed air is said to yield about .675 KWh of electricity, which is good enough to propel the motorcycle to around 20-25 kilometers on air power alone. So, the range obviously is the limiting factor with it not anything close to what the IC engine or even an electric motor can deliver.
Even so, if the technology to store more air at higher pressures safely, in a reasonably sized tank can be utilized, the range could go up by many times, perhaps even enough for air powered motorcycles to be good alternates to electric powered runabouts for city commuting. Tata Motors is said to be working on a similar concept called the Air Car, with a French company and we’re eager to see what emerges of that idea.
For now, enjoy these images of Dean Benstead’s O2 Pursuit motorcycle, which is claimed to be able to clock over 100 Kph in the real world, which is a very good figure for starters.
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