The APFCT (Asia Pacific Fuel Cell Technologies) hydrogen scooter is a fuel cell electric scooter that is powered by hydrogen stored in low-pressure (10 bar) metal hydride canisters inside the vehicle. The hydrogen is used in the fuel cell to produce electricity which is used to power the motor of the scooter. The environmental benefits of using these type of scooters, instead of fossil-fuel powered scooters, is that they don’t emit greenhouse gases nor small soot particles. The canisters containing hydrogen can be easily interchanged, allowing the refuelling of the vehicle to take place in less than a minute.
When these scooters are parked at home or at our offices they can also be used in another way. Since they produce electricity from the hydrogen on-board, they can act as power generators when parked. Through a power output socket electricity from the scooter can be extracted and delivered to anything we want! This provides flexibility to the users, since they can connect the scooter to their houses, to power tools, camping equipment, etc. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Scooters could offer ‘Vehicle-to-X’ opportunities, such as “Vehicle-to-home” (V2H), ‘Vehicle-to-Load’ (V2L) or even ‘Vehicle-to-Grid’ services.
Research goals at The Green Village
At The Green Village the research group Future Energy Systems of the department of Process & Energy at the faculty of Mechanical Engineering of TU Delft wants to test mainly two things. First, the technical characteristics of V2G and V2L operation to evaluate safety aspects and overall performance regarding energy and power flows, energy efficiency, hydrogen consumption and controlled discharging of the scooter. And second, to create public awareness of the use of an alternative fuel, such as hydrogen, to power scooters.
Contact and information
Dr. Carla Robledo. C.b.robledo@tudelft.nl
Prof. Dr. Ad van Wijk a.j.m.vanwijk@tudelft.nl
