London Hydrogen Partnership fuel cell generator charges batteries at Greenpower F24 final
The eighth annual national finals of the Greenpower F24 student electric vehicle competition were held at the Goodwood track in England on October 15. The competition included a six hour endurance for the battery powered racers. The teams had to swap out and charge their batteries during the course of the event. In the past there has been a portable generator provided for onsite charging. During an event earlier in the year at the Dunsfold airfield, the generator broke down, but the London Hydrogen Partnership had their fuel cell power generation trailer on display at the event. LHP stepped up and made the trailer available to the teams to charge their batteries.
For the national final, LHP provided their fuel cell trailer again. The trailer includes a Plug Power GenCore proton exchange membrane fuel cell, an integrated hydrogen cylinder enclosure and control equipment. It was built to demonstrate fuel cell technology to the public but ended up making this electric vehicle competition even greener than before. This year the Weald School's "Slippery Trug" won the national final.
[Source: FuelCellWorks]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 11:46AM (10/25/2006)
"It was built to demonstrate fuel cell technology to the public but ended up making this electric vehicle competition even greener than before."
Actually, since the vast majority of commercial hydrogen is manufactured via a very inefficient process of conversion of a FOSSIL FUEL, it probably made this substantially LESS green. Hydrogen is not an energy source; it is a grossly inefficient energy storage medium.
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Nathan 9:26PM (10/26/2006)
Indeed. It's a bold claim to say hydrogen made the competition greener when the methods used to obtain that hydrogen aren't even mentioned (though I wouldn't expect ABG to know - I doubt LHP would bring it up on their own). Ultimately, it's entirely possible that these cars would have used less fossil fuels had they burned them directly, rather than going through two conversion processes (to hydrogen, then to electricity).
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Luke H 10:24AM (10/30/2006)
I actually took the car I built 5seasons ago, Phatman, to both of the races mentioned, The F24 National Final at Goodwood and the race at Dunsfold (Top Gear Test Track)Have a look at www.horsfallracing.co.uk and www.greenpower.co.uk for more information. We're building two more cars for 2007 and are looking for sponsors contact me via the website for information.
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