Design of a hydrogen-powered bicycle for sustainable mobility

Hydrogen-powered vehicles are emerging as a key source for a clean and sustainable mobility scenario. In particular, hydrogen technologies have a great potential for light mobility in urban areas, where traffic congestion may cause very high levels of local pollution. In this context, hybrid fuel cell/battery vehicles represent a promising solution, since they allow for extended driving range and short recharge time, which are two of the major concerns related to electric propulsion, in general. In this work, a new plug-in fuel cell electric bicycle concept is presented, where the on-board energy storage is realized by means of an innovative system integrating a battery pack with a metal hydride hydrogen tank. This solution allows to achieve very high performance in terms of riding range, which are unattainable with traditional battery electric bicycles. In particular, the hybrid energy storage system is conceived to provide an optimal thermal management of the two integrated components. The proposed design is developed on the basis of typical duty cycles acquired during on-road measurements. A prototype of the bicycle is then realized and bench-tested in order to assess design consistency and to evaluate its performances. The results show that the riding range of the new hydrogen-fuelled bicycle is about three times higher than the one for a similar electric bicycle.