Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT) Showcases Hydrogen Electric Motor, Recharge Gasoline!

Hydrogen-powered electric motor. (Doc. MIT)

JAKARTA - The future of electric vehicles is in sight, but also many are looking at the potential for hydrogen, both as fuel for electric cells, as well as for internal combustion engines.

This time, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showcased their innovation of hydrogen-fueled electric motors!

The MIT Electric Vehicle Team (MIT Electric Vehicle Team) is known to have experience in building innovative electric vehicles. Now, they are turning to a two-wheeled world by developing hydrogen-fueled electric motors in 2024.

MIT is currently testing the motorcycle prototype strictly. This prototype was successfully demonstrated in October 2023, and great again, they made it open-source! All design plans are available online, so development can be continued by anyone, triggering further experiments.

Reported by Rideapart, February 12, the project was initiated by Aditya Mehrotra, a graduate student who collaborated with Machine Engineering Professor Alex Slocum. Mehrotra focuses on the energy system and motorcycle enthusiasts, so this hydrogen electric motorcycle idea emerged.

The team explained that even though the battery is growing rapidly, the limitations remain. One of them is charging time that can take a few minutes, even with the fastest chargers. Meanwhile, the theoretical filling of hydrogen fuel can be as fast as filling the gas tank.

How this bike works is similar to a battery electric motor with an extender range. There is a motor driving wheel and a motor controller that converts DC power into air conditioner power for the motor. This controller gains power from the battery and transmits it to the motor to drive the wheel. Simple, right?

The hydrogen system works parallel to batteries, just like a charger. When the motor goes on, the battery will be depleted and refilled continuously by hydrogen fuel cells. Mehrotra explained, as long as the battery average power is lower than the hydrogen fuel cell average, the battery will never run out of power.

If the fuel cell runs out, the replacement is very easy and only takes a few seconds or minutes.

This project has been presented at the Hydrogen Americas Summit and is planned to be exhibited at the World Hydrogen Summit. This prototype has also appeared at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Las Vegas' largest electronic technology innovation exhibition, including electric vehicles.

The next step, of course, is to push the boundaries of the ability of hydrogen technology. Toyota has a hydrogen electric car called Mirai, but has not yet gained widespread popularity due to the lack of hydrogen infrastructure. Therefore, the MIT team is trying to increase demand for hydrogen so that its infrastructure and technology can develop. They hope that fossil energy can be completely replaced by hydrogen in the future, with levels of efficiency and comfort equivalent to gasoline.