With battery electric vehicles (BEVs) entering the global market, it’s clear that the future is indeed electric. That said, there are many people who have recognized the potential of hydrogen energy – both in terms of using it as a fuel cell to power electric vehicles, but also as a fuel source for internal combustion engines.
We’ve already talked about some hydrogen-focused initiatives from companies such as Yamaha and Fraunhofer IWU. This time, it was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that presented its hydrogen-powered initiatives. MIT’s electric vehicle team has long experience in building and driving innovative electric vehicles. This time, the team is dedicating itself to the world of two wheels and is venturing to build hydrogen-powered electric motorcycles in 2024.
In October 2023, the MIT electric vehicle team carried out a successful demonstration of its hydrogen-powered prototype. To make things even better, the team isn’t keeping the prototype to itself. The new hydrogen-electric machine has been designed as an open-source prototype, with all the plans available online. This means that development can continue and expand as other components can be installed and more experiments can be carried out on the prototype.
The whole project is led by Aditya Mehrotra, a graduate student working with Alex Slocum, a professor of mechanical engineering. Mehrotra has focused on energy systems and is also a motorcycle enthusiast, so he came up with the idea of a hydrogen-powered electric motorcycle. The team explained that although batteries have come a long way in recent years, they still have their limitations. One of the biggest limitations is charging time, as even the fastest chargers take several minutes to charge a battery. However, refueling with hydrogen could theoretically be as quick as filling up a gas tank.
So how does it all work? In a video uploaded to MIT’s official YouTube channel, Mehrotra explains that the hydrogen bike works in a similar way to a battery electric bike with a range extender. There is a motor that drives the wheel and a motor controller that converts DC energy into AC energy for the motor. This controller receives energy from a battery and supplies it to the motor to turn the wheel. Pretty simple, isn’t it? The hydrogen system works here in parallel with the battery, acting as a charger. So, as the bike progresses, it depletes the battery which, in turn, is continuously recharged by the hydrogen fuel cell.
Mehrotra explains that as long as the average power output of the battery is lower than the average power output of the hydrogen fuel cell, the battery never runs out of charge. When the fuel cell runs out, it’s as simple as replacing it with a new one, something that takes a few seconds or, at most, a few minutes.