Two students create hydrogen fuel cell-powered motorcycle

For the last two years, Alex Bell and Andres Pacheco – two students who are majoring in Engineering at the Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania – have been working on a motorcycle that's powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. Sitting neatly (sort of) inside the frame rails of a Buell Cyclone donor bike is a 1.2 kW Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell stack from Ballard, which sends power to a 1.2kW AC induction motor from CFR Italy. Hydrogen is stored in twin metal hydride cylinders that each hold 900 liters of gas.

For those interested in the real nitty gritty details of what makes this bike tick, the team has created a website dedicated to the project. For the rest of us, there are a couple of videos pasted after the break of the bike in action, albeit slowly, and a gallery of pictures below. Nice work!

[Source: Swarthmore College - Department of Engineering via Bikes in the Fast Lane]

Video 1:

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Video 2:

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