danny_galaga

While I'm sure there must be some corruption in China, the perpetrators have to really be in the know, as they have the death penalty for such things there. But other Asian countries...

So get a boilermaker.

What is this a reply to?

I think the idea is you want it to be quite high pressure, and lots of it, so heat is in the mix there. Possibly running through a 'radiator', which in this case is absorbing heat from the air.

You've compelled me to look it up. Seems it's a variation on a compressed air motor, but using liquid nitrogen that is heated to become pressurised gas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_nitrogen_engine As far as I can tell, this is the only car to have used a liquid nitrogen engine

Of course if you miss out on nitrous oxide, it's no laughing matter 😀

And of course potassium nitrate if ya wanna get a rocket up ya 😀

I forgot to mention trinitrotoluene. Plenty of bang for the buck 😀

How about ammonium nitrate? That'll give you a hurry up!

Unfortunately there's a two way loss that is hard to get around - compressing the air generates lots of heat. Decompressing it, eg driving a piston engine, absorbs lots of heat, potentially freezing up the engine. This was definitely a problem with the model CO2 motors I used. You would actually get ice on the pipes!

In fact, I think it was Peugeot that was experimenting with compressed air for a hybrid. Compressing air during braking. I was very excited about the idea, because it's much simpler than batteries. Unfortunately, as you say, huge inefficiencies compressing the air. They dropped the idea.

I guess they were thinking of ammonia when they typed it?

Doesn't seem like they were in a circuit though.

https://generalaviationnews.com/2025/03/26/cessna-172-runs-out-of-fuel-during-flight-lesson/

I still shrug in your general direction 🤷‍♂️ 😄