Anyone seen this? Hydrogen powered bike

I missed this last week so could have been done already http://evworld.com/queries/QUERY_addnewscnt.cfm?newsid=34084

 

Promising or what?

Looked like an Ezee motor and control system. Finally they got enough Hydrogen to make it worthwhile, but that cylinder looks expensive. The last one worked out more expensive than petrol.

 

It looks like between the battery and Hydrogen cylinder, you get 1250wh, which should be more than enough for a day's lazy riding, for $2 worth of Hydrogen and about 20P's worth of electricity. That's if you can find some way of getting the Hydrogen into the cylinder for $2.

 

Still, good progress. It's going in the right direction.I wonder how much the bike with its fuel cell would cost?

Several years ago, I think about 2007, a young Austrian created and demonstrated a recumbent trike he'd built using hydrogen to power a fuel cell. With it's tank alongside the rear wheel it was good for 90 kilometres.

 

And way back in 2001 Aprilia displayed and demonstrated a hydrogen fuel cell e-bike that looked really stylish in a typical Italian manner.

 

So the concept clearly works and is hardly new technology any more, so what's stopping it? I suspect it's both the as yet suspect long term reliability of fuel cells in these applications and the lack of availablity of public hydrogen refilling or exchange containers.

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Having to run through a battery rather spoils this.

 

Looks like the hydrogen bit weighs 2-3kg, so you may as well carry a spare battery.

 

Fair play to the prof, he does say in the interview the bike was built to show his students hydrogen power is not just about enormous commercial installations.

 

Declining battery performance is still a big drawback with ebikes, and ecars for that matter.

 

A cheap to recharge/exchange hydrogen cell which the public knew had a near limitless life of cycles would be a step forward.

 

But the biggest problem is a decent capacity battery is still big and heavy.

 

Progress in this area is glacial, but if the current bottle batteries had double or treble their capacity for the same weight, then ebikes might really take off.

Problem with gas is what happened to me today.

Pulling out on to a main road, I could smell LPG in the air. Sure enough, a gas powered taxi went past.

But how to tell if is leaking, and what do you do?

If a petrol leak, you can see it.

The Police can cordon off the road, Fire Service put down sand and drain the tank etc.

Yes the bike is an eZee Sprint 8 LDS and we should have the Hydrogen version available from the beginning of April 2015.

Yes the bike is an eZee Sprint 8 LDS and we should have the Hydrogen version available from the beginning of April 2015.

 

Any idea of how much I need to save by April?

Any idea of how much I need to save by April?

If you have ask the price etc., etc.

If you have ask the price etc., etc.

It's just that I'm 40 in March...might have to think about what I'm getting for my planned crisis!

Problem with gas is what happened to me today.

Pulling out on to a main road, I could smell LPG in the air. Sure enough, a gas powered taxi went past.

But how to tell if is leaking, and what do you do?

 

Easy - just add methyl mercaptan to the gas, as has been done with piped natural gas for decades now.

Easy - just add methyl mercaptan to the gas, as has been done with piped natural gas for decades now.

I think that you miss the point. I could smell the gas in the air, but had no idea what direction etc.

I think that you miss the point. I could smell the gas in the air, but had no idea what direction etc.

 

In the example you gave, you were able to identify the source of the smell, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make...?

German bicycle company Electrolyte claim to have teamed up with one of the world's leading suppliers of fuel cells to produce a hydrogen powered e-bike based on their Vorradier range. Three hundred kilometres range is claimed.

 

This is reported in the new issue 9 of Electric Bike magazine, but they say it sounds more like a research project than a commercial proposition.

 

Electric Bike Magazine is free to read or PDF download on this link

 

http://electrolyte.bike/

any more info on this or any other Hydrogen powered bike, claiming to be in production during 2016 but I can,t find any for sale.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11904005/French-unveil-world-first-hydrogen-powered-electric-bike-emitting-only-pure-water.html

There was one shown about three years ago that used hydrogen cartridges, but the cartridges werehideously expensive, as you can immagine.

For the moment they are all going to la poste. I imagine they are paying a price way over and beyond what a mere mortal would be willing to pay for one. The plan is to have a a general public one "in 2017". My advice, don't hold your breath and start saving...

Thanks for the info

I met a man who lives locally who engineers hydrogen engines for taxis. They have several running and appear to be successful.

 

He asked me if I was interested in having a hydrogen bike, I wanted to know if I could produce my own hydrogen. I suggested he get on here where more knowledgable people than I might assist.

 

I've never seen him since.

What is more efficient,

Using hydrogen in a fuel cell

OR just burning it in a conventional internal combustion engine?

What is more efficient,

Using hydrogen in a fuel cell

OR just burning it in a conventional internal combustion engine?

 

Hi

Define efficient. This is not a sarcastic put down . The combustion of hydrogen and air produces 100% heat, nitro OXY compounds, water vapour and in a internal combustion engine, up to 30% of the energy in mechanical motion.

In a fuel cell, the reaction with air will produce water vapour , a little heat, very little and an electric current. Up to 60% maybe 70% of the intrinsic energy goes into electricity. Most of the fuel cells used need to be held at an elevated temperature, so there is a waste in energy in getting them to operate.

Problem with gas is what happened to me today.

Pulling out on to a main road, I could smell LPG in the air. Sure enough, a gas powered taxi went past.

But how to tell if is leaking, and what do you do?

If a petrol leak, you can see it.

The Police can cordon off the road, Fire Service put down sand and drain the tank etc.

Hydrogen would just float away, . The problem is in how it is stored. The old fashioned steel cylinders will store it at about 500 psi 40 bar and if they ruptured, there would be a rapid release. The newer technique is to store it under 2 bar in a special recipe of materials which chemically absorb the hydrogen. These recipes are proprietary. If the bottle is ruptured the gas will slowly escape from the material. Normally this should not create a hazard however There would be hazards if this happened in an enclosed space, particularly without high level vents e.g the channel tunnel or underground carparks

 

The value of the hydrogen is that it is pure, if smelly carrier gases were used, these would probably poison the fuel cell.

There was one shown about three years ago that used hydrogen cartridges, but the cartridges werehideously expensive, as you can immagine.

 

It is the mixture of materials used to adsorb the hydrogen which is costly. Producing the hydrogen is child's play. What is astounding is that the adsorb ed hydrogen bottles can hold more hydrogen at room pressure than can high pressure cylinders at 500psi!