Can compressed air be used to power electric generators.?
if compressed air can be used then why not take some of the electricity and run the compressor isn't that free energy?
Best answer:
Answer by billrussell42
That's a perpetual motion machine, my third such question today.
They don't work, and they can't work. The losses due to friction, and there are always losses, and losses due to other factors mean that you always lose energy.
Bottom line, you can't get something for nothing.
.
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This is an intelligent question that gets to the heart of the “free energy” issue.
The reason it would not work is that no transfer of energy is completely free from loss to friction and heat. The energy “created” by using the compressed air would not be enough to re-compress the same amount of air as was used to run the generator and the compressor.
In other words, it would not take just “some” of the electricity as you suggest, but “more than” the amount generated.
Energy cannot in truth be created except by transforming mass into energy, because energy and mass are interchangeable. There is no “free” energy. We must always use some resource to transform one type of energy into another (except, again, in nuclear power which transform mass into energy, and has its own costs).
Compressing air is just another way of converting energy from one form to another. That’s not to say it isn’t useful, though
http://www.stuffintheair.com/compressed-air-car.html
Here’s an example of running a car with compressed air.