BOSTON: A team of US researchers is beginning development of a prototype hydrogen-powered motorcycle, with the help of a South Korean fuel cell specialist.
In order to encourage other collaborations and projects, the resources related to this project will be made available to all.
The MIT EVT is a department within the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that specialises in the development of innovative electric vehicles.
The idea is to develop a power system based on a fuel cell capable of delivering performance the same as, or better than, a lithium battery.
As a first step, DMI has provided a fuel cell module that will be integrated into a motorcycle designed by MIT EVT.
The aim is for this fuel cell to provide clean energy and allow the vehicle to be completely carbon-neutral. In fact, the module uses hydrogen as a fuel source and converts it into electricity, ultimately producing only water vapour. By one day using green hydrogen, the vehicle's carbon footprint will be perfectly neutral.
Previously, this module was mainly used for drones and robotics, and this is the first time it has equipped a motorcycle.
Although it only provides a maximum of 1.5 kW of power, DMI will be able to provide a more suitable module in the future thanks to the first test data collected. In the long term, the scientists' goal is to develop a motorcycle that is both efficient, reliable and clean.
The original thing about this project is that all of its relevant resources and data will be open source, which means that any researcher or company will be able to use the development of this motorcycle to carry out their own research into hydrogen vehicles.
A large part of the design process will be available online, in order to encourage more companies and/or researchers to work on fuel cell vehicles, but also to assist them in their projects.
