A few weeks ago, we shared the story of a Spanish inventor who, over fifty years ago, created the first water-powered engine. Strangely, the invention never took off, leaving us with hydrogen as the closest alternative. But what if we turned to air—specifically oxygen—to power vehicles? This concept could offer a compelling alternative to electric vehicles (EVs), which are gaining traction but still require a “bridge fuel” to fully phase out plug-in hybrids, which are far from zero-emission solutions.
India once planned to revolutionize the roads with air: It was before the hydrogen engine
Tata Motors, one of the largest automobile manufacturing companies in India, undertook a project in the early 2000s to launch an air-based engine. This revolutionary idea was to change the outlook of the automobile manufacturing industry by providing a cleaner, more efficient, and cheaper source of power than the conventional internal combustion engine.
Air-powered engines, also known as compressed air engines, operate on a simple principle: compressed air is employed in lieu of fuel to operate the vehicle, where pistons are made to work as a result of compressed air. The concept of remote work itself can be described as rather old-fashioned, having been first tried in the nineteenth century.
In 2007, Tata Motors declared its association with Motor Development International (MDI), a Luxembourg company that devoted to compressed air engine systems. It was planned to make air-powered Cars in India; Tata Motors bought the technology and rights to build as well as sell air-powered vehicles from MDI.
Tata Motors’ air-powered engine was a failure: The strange reason behind this ending
The basic part of an air-powered engine was a tank, which was subsequently filled with compressed air. This was used for the storage of energy, much like the tank used to store fuel in ordinary automobiles.
Despite the promising concept and initial enthusiasm, Tata Motors’ air-powered engine project faced several challenges that ultimately led to its failure:
Technical Limitations: Compressed air technology never had the power or range to allow it to be put into practical use every day. These challenges included the comparatively low energy density of compressed air as compared to conventional fuels.
Infrastructure Challenges: The use of air-powered vehicles would have entailed the need for lots of infrastructure, such as refueling stations with high-pressure air compressors, to name but a few.
Safety Concerns: The high-pressure air tanks became a nightmare when it came to safety, especially in cases of mishaps or failures of the tanks.
Regulatory Hurdles: The process of seeking regulatory approvals for a new technology and unconventional propulsion system was challenging and time-consuming.
The truth is that we cannot speak of a different end than expected, since this type of “fuel” was tested several decades ago and also ended up being a failure. However, Tata Motors’ proposal is very different, so the mobility sector has a lot to learn. We would even be talking about something more than an experimental prototype, as on other occasions.
It is inevitable to think that models like this Tata Motors air-powered engine could be an option for the future, although it has already proven not to be as viable as we would like. We have seen other experimental models running on nitrogen, alcohol, and even wine, but they have all demonstrated the same thing: we can get them out of the way of EVs and innovate elsewhere, but realistically, that does not seem like a bad joke for the zero-emission mobility sector.