MIT’s Electric Automobile Team, which has a long history of constructing and racing groundbreaking electric vehicles, including cars and motorcycles, in international professional-level competitions, is innovating something very different this year: The team is constructing a hydrogen-powered electric motorcycle, by means of a fuel cell system, as a testbed for new hydrogen-based transport.
The motorcycle successfully completed its primary full test-track demonstration. It is designed as an open-source platform that should make it conceivable to switch out and test a diversity of different components, and for others to attempt their own versions built on plans the team is making freely obtainable online.
Aditya Mehrotra, who is leading the project, is a graduate student working with Alex Slocum a mechanical engineering professor, the Walter M. May and A. Hazel May Chair in Emerging Technologies.
Mehrotra was perusal energy systems and happened to also really enjoy motorcycles, he says, so we came up with the novel idea of a hydrogen-powered bike. We did an assessment study, and we believed that this could truly work. We [decided to] try to construct it.
Team associates say that although battery-powered cars are a benefit for the environment, they still face boundaries in range and have questions associated with the mining of lithium and subsequent emissions. So, the team was interested in exploring hydrogen-powered vehicles as a fresh substitute, permitting vehicles that could be swiftly replenished just like gasoline-powered vehicles.
Different to past projects done by the team, which has been part of MIT since 2005, this vehicle will not be taking part in races or competitions but will be presented at a variety of gatherings. The team, comprising of about a dozen students, has been working on constructing the prototype since January 2023. In October they presented the idea at the Hydrogen Americas Summit, and in travel to the Netherlands to present it at the World Hydrogen Summit. In addition to the two hydrogen conferences, the team plans to display its bike at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month.
We’re eager to use this venture as a opportunity to start discussions around ‘small hydrogen’ systems that could upsurge demand, which could lead to the expansion of more infrastructure, Mehrotra says. We hope the project can support to find new and inspired applications for hydrogen. In addition to these demonstrations and the online material the team will offer, he adds, they are also edging toward publishing papers in academic journals relating to their project and lessons learned from it, in hopes of making “an impact on the energy industry.”
The motorcycle took form over the course of the year, piece by piece. We got a couple of business sponsors to contribute components like the fuel cell and other major components of the system, he informs.
They also received support from the MIT Energy Initiative, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the departments of Mechanical Engineering, and the MIT Edgerton Center.
Preliminary tests were conducted on a dynamometer, a kind of instrumented treadmill Mehrotra defines as “fundamentally a mock road.” The vehicle used battery power during its progress, until the fuel cell, supplied by South Korean company Doosan, could be transported and installed. The space the group has selected to design and build the prototype, the home of the Electric Vehicle Team, is in MIT’s Building N51 and is well established to undertake detailed testing of each of the bike’s mechanisms as it is developed and integrated.
Elizabeth Brennan, a senior in mechanical engineering, informs she joined the group in January 2023 as she desired to gain more electrical engineering knowledge, and I certainly fell in love with it. She says group associates really care and are very enthusiastic to be present and work on this bike and believe in the project.
Brennan, who is the squad’s safety lead, has been learning about the safe handling methods essential for the bike’s hydrogen fuel, as well as the special tanks and connectors needed. The team primarily used a commercially existing electric motor for the prototype but is now working on an enhanced version, designed from scratch, she says, “which gives us a lot more flexibility.”
Unlike a project built as a commercial product, Mehrotra says, this vehicle is completely designed for research, that can switch components in and out, and get actual hardware data on how good your designs are. This can assist individuals work on executing their novel design ideas and help drive the industry forward, he says.
The project will continue to progress, says team associate Annika Marschner, a sophomore in mechanical engineering. It’s sort of a constant idea, and as we advance it and make changes, making it a stronger, better bike, it will just continue to grow over the years, hopefully,” she says.
She sees a bright future for hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel to substitute fossil fuels over time. I think it has an enormous amount of potential, she says. I think one of the main challenges with moving hydrogen energy forward is experiencing these demonstration projects actually develop and proving that this can work and that they can work well. So, we’re certainly enthusiastic to bring it along further.
