I don't quite buy this argument. Gas is far less volatile than people think. In the event of an accident, I would much rather face a tank of gasoline, which most likely wouldn't explode at all, than a tank of compressed air.

In the middle of the fire, however, I'm not so sure.

Gas vapors are dangerous. Without the air, you can drop a lit match in a gas tank, without a 'big boom'.

However, in an accident, you'd want to pick the compressed air tank. The tanks are very strong. Gas tanks in cars are built with very flimsy steel.

Industries like welding has been using high-pressure tanks for decades, and bottles rarely fail.

Yes industries like welding have been using high-pressure tanks for decades, but that's not high pressure tanks that are traveling at 70 miles an hour in a tight corridor surrounded by hundreds of other cars that likewise are traveling at 70 mph. Can you say chain reaction?

Compressed air is far more dangerous than gasoline. Gasoline is not a guaranteed explosion more likely its a fire.

I would like to see that in action, because it seems to me that allowing gas to expand that fast is going to drop the temperature of the gas so low it'll probably freeze CO2 out of the air.

And that process will probably rob a lot of the explosive force.

Can you compress gas so much that if it exploded it would liquefy? With a quick google I couldn't find an equation relating pressure drop to temperature in real air (not ideal gas).

I think its worth mentioning that explosion is not the danger we should be thinking about when it comes to gasoline.

Gas is a low viscosity, oily (duh) substance held in flimsy metal or plastic containers that ignites easily and is hard to put out. We are comparing the danger of being injured by the compressed air explosion with the danger of being burned severely by sprayed or leaked fuel.

Sign me up for the shrapnel because burns suck huge.

Have you never driven behind a welding supply truck with all of those tanks rattling and smashing around back there?

Some of those tanks are both under extremely high pressure and contain explosive gases.

I was just thinking about these. Yes, they're used for years, but they are incredibly dangerous and treated as such. I remember that not any compressor can load them: if it leaks the tiniest amount of oil in the air it'll create an explosive mix.

I wonder if you are thinking of diving tanks, where not any compressor can load them. If it leaks the tiniest amount of oil in(to) the air it'll poison the diver.

We intentionally put vast amounts of far more flammable compounds into gas tanks, welding, cutting etc.

>Few things in the common life of people are as dangerous as 25 gallons of unleaded.

How about driving a car?