But now, that’s so passe. This time, it’s a hydrogen fuel cell. With thanks to Reuters.
French startup launches hydrogen-powered bicycle.
[Ed: note the small box-like object near the bike’s front wheel. It’s the fuel cell.]
Pragma Industries, which is based in Biarritz, France and makes fuel cells for military use, has sold some 60 hydrogen-powered bikes to French municipalities including Saint Lo, Cherbourg, Chambery and Bayonne.
. . . “Many others have made hydrogen bike prototypes, but we are the first to move to series production,” said founder and chief executive Pierre Forte.
The firm’s Alpha bike runs for about 100 km (62 miles) on a two-litre tank of hydrogen, a range similar to an electric bike, but a refill takes only minutes while e-bikes take hours to charge. One kilo of hydrogen holds about 600 times more energy than a one-kilo lithium battery.
. . . With bike’s range limited by the size of the hydrogen tank, Pragma is also working on a bike that will convert plain water into hydrogen aboard the bike, using a chemical reaction between water and aluminum or magnesium powder to produce hydrogen gas.
“In the next two-three years we want to enter the consumer market and massively increase the scale of our operations,” said Forte.
Interesting…will it be ever be cheaper than electric bikes to own, use long-term? We haven’t even reached critical mass ownership and use for electric bikes –a more accessible bike technology right now.
It is an electric bike. Only the battery technology is different.
Only that its 1/3rd as efficient
and it more parts to break
and it has a pressure vessel between your legs
and it has next to nowhere that commercially sells the fuel.
On second thought, nope this is just another crappy motorcycle.
“One kilo of hydrogen holds about 600 times more energy than a one-kilo lithium battery”.
Big design failure for a bicycle! Too easy to weaponize. Should be outlawed. Maybe a hydrogen fuel cell is OK for a stationary and secure application, but even then the question has to be asked: Where does the hydrogen come from and how much energy is expended to acquire it, store it, distribute it, dispense it? I suspect that lithium batteries are the best choice all factors considered because that is what power utilities are using at large scale to store wind turbine energy.
thats an insane response. There are so many things that can be weaponized. namely from the place where you pump high octane flammable fuel into a truck. also, tinfoil, chemicals, fertilizers, multi ton trucks, etc.
There’s no mention of the *power* of the fuel cell, which is also important. The only advantage of hydrogen seems to be super-fast recharging, which hardly outweighs the advantage of being able to charge a battery almost anywhere, often in an hour or less. “Hydrogen is the fuel of the future, and always will be”.
No matter the method of propulsion, there might be significant benefits to getting all of us to use bikes more frequently. They’re still a lot smaller and less polluting than cars.
Interesting. I love entrepreneurs that try out new technologies. Many go broke so.
If hydrogen fueled vehicles were so great, we’d see a lot more of them.
Why did Vancouver sell is hydrogen bus fleet ? https://gas2.org/2015/03/10/vancouver-ends-hydrogen-bus-program-amid-high-costs/
Why did Whistler if it is such a great idea ? http://nationalpost.com/opinion/brian-hutchinson-whistlers-hydrogen-bus-boondoggle
E-bikes in general had a lot of pickup in Europe but not so common yet in MetroVan. This seems more of a moped or light motorcycle replacement attempt. We shall see.
Actually, e-bikes are quite common in Vancouver and becoming more so. I’d say we are at the kink in the hockey stick. I ride one myself. I know of at least two local entrepreneurs that are supporting the industry here. There is quite possibly more.
http://www.ebikes.ca/
https://ohmcycles.com/about/electric-bicycle-manufacturer/
Thanks. About to buy 2 this spring. Any suggestion for a store in Vancouver or online order and/or a bike comparison website ?
I’m not really a good person to ask this since I built my own from a bare CroMoly steel MTB frame, but any good local bike shop will be able to help you. Even MEC now has a good selection of e-bikes. Expect to pay somewhere between 3k and 4k for good bike. IMHO hydraulic disk brakes are a must on an e-bike, also consider the newer internal gear hub types, less maintenance, and you don’t need as many gears on an e-bike.