Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
Yes, I saw that the other day. I'm still trying to decide if the article is demonstrating journalistic ignorance on a massive scale or whether I'm missing something fundamental, because it seems to me that if you super-cool air down to a liquid you're removing the energy from it, rather than storing any energy in it. What you're actually doing, I believe, is creating a source of potential energy, because of the useful work that can be done when the liquid air is allowed to recirculate with other components at 'room temperature'. The actual energy in that system comes from the environment, rather than the liquid air, but it is the liquid air that allows the energy to be extracted.
Any scientists about to enlighten us further?
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As i understand it,it gets cooled to -190C which is an unnatural state and as soon as the air starts to expand it takes up more room so will be capable of pushing a piston or turning a turbine ,pretty much the same principle as the internal combustion engine where a spark explodes petrol into a gaseous state to force the piston down .The biggest problem is keeping the air liquid for long periods in a car ,an idea probably more suited to power stations where it is already in use on a trial basis