A fuel-cell powered "motorcycle"

[unixronin]

It's called ENV, pronounced "Envy".

I use, and they should use, the term "motorcycle" advisedly.  With a 50mph top speed which it reaches in 12 seconds, this isn't going to displace the Yamaha YZF-R1 any time soon.  "Scooter" might be a better word to use, and a better market to shoot for.  But with no exhaust except water vapor, and a cost of $3 to $4 for a five-ounce hydrogen fillup that will take it a hundred miles, it'd make a hell of an inner-city runabout.

The manufacturer, Intelligent Energy, projects a possible retail cost of about $1,500 for a home-sized reformer unit that would produce hydrogen from natural gas, ethanol, or biomass.  Turn kitchen scraps into usable fuel?  Hey, I could get all over that.

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Neat.

They say the power source weighs around 7 lbs. Depending on its volume, it might not be too hard to put, say, 4 of them on one motorcycle, using two of them to drive the rear wheels and two the front, direct motorized hubs. Add a battery, regenerative braking capability, mechanical brakes for serious stopping, and I think we've got a winner.

That gives you a fuel cost of 80 miles per gallon, so assuming you get the storage down, a 5 gallon tank takes you 400 miles. If they really do get the cost down to $1 per gallon, I would easily buy one of these.

-Ogre

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Hell, if they are interested, I might even pay for parts and do development work for them for free. :) Heh. "open source" hardware dev. ;)

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I follow "fuel cost of 80 miles per gallon".

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

They are saying 5 oz per 100 miles, so with 4 of them, that's 20 oz per 100 miles, divide by 5, you get 20 miles per 4 oz, multiply by 4, you get 80 miles per ... pint. PINT. Holy fsck. Ok. Duh.

:.,$ s/gallon/pint/g

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Assuming that an ounce weight of hydrogen is also a fluid ounce, which is true for water but not (for example) for gasoline or diesel, and not necessarily a safe assumption for hydrogen. I don't know how they're storing the hydrogen -- metal hydride, pressurized, cryogenic dewar...?

80 miles per pound, on the other hand, works. But it might be better than that -- you probably wouldn't be running all four motors at capacity all the time. On the one hand, you'd be burning more fuel at higher speeds ... on the other, there's no reason low-speed around-town cruising should be consuming any more power except when accelerating.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Is that a 5 ounce weight measure of hydrogen they are talking about?

That changes my perspective a lot. I guess I figured that was liquid measurement, and thus, i could make volume comparisons similar to gasoline. Ooops.

-Ogre

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

http://www.intelligent-energy.com/index_article.asp?SecID=15&secondlevel=798

-Ogre

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

http://www.intelligent-energy.com/images/uploads/env%20brochure.pdf

-Ogre

!!!

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

United States Office:

1001 Menaul Blvd NE
Albuquerque, NM 87107

I know what I'm doing tomorrow!

-Ogre

Re: !!!

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Well? It's the day after tomorrow now. :-)

[ttocs.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that could be worth a cycle license here in NYC.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

interesting. i wonder what the top speed is?

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

just read the PDF, it can do 50 mph. a lot slow for my tastes.