There’s growing interest in electric motorcycles and they’re starting to show up in greater numbers, but range and recharge time are still stumbling blocks to widespread acceptance and even if you increase range, you’re still looking at a lengthy stop when you need to plug in. If you could recharge as quickly and easily as you can fill up with gasoline, electric power might really take off. That’s the motivation behind POWERPASTE.
Instead of batteries, electric vehicles can run on electricity generated by a fuel cell, but you need to fill up with hydrogen, a process that needs a highly specialized infrastructure in place and the vehicle has to carry high pressure tanks to store the gas. Motorcycles are poor candidates for fuel cell operation, unless you have an alternative to those high pressure tanks.
POWERPASTE stores hydrogen in a convenient form
Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Dresden have now come up with a hydrogen-based fuel that is ideal for small vehicles: POWERPASTE, which is based on solid magnesium hydride. “POWERPASTE stores hydrogen in a chemical form at room temperature and atmospheric pressure to be then released on demand,” explains Dr. Marcus Vogt, research associate at Fraunhofer IFAM. And given that POWERPASTE only begins to decompose at temperatures of around 250 °C, it remains safe even when an e-scooter stands in the baking sun for hours. Moreover, refueling is extremely simple. Instead of heading to the filling station, riders merely have to replace an empty cartridge with a new one and then refill a tank with mains water. This can be done either at home or underway.
The starting material of POWERPASTE is magnesium, one of the most abundant elements and, therefore, an easily available raw material. Magnesium powder is combined with hydrogen to form magnesium hydride in a process conducted at 350 °C and five to six times atmospheric pressure. An ester and a metal salt are then added in order to form the finished product. Onboard the vehicle, the POWERPASTE is released from a cartridge by means of a plunger. When water is added from an onboard tank, the ensuing reaction generates hydrogen gas in a quantity dynamically adjusted to the actual requirements of the fuel cell. In fact, only half of the hydrogen originates from the POWERPASTE; the rest comes from the added water. “POWERPASTE thus has a huge energy storage density,” says Vogt. “It is substantially higher than that of a 700 bar high-pressure tank. And compared to batteries, it has ten times the energy storage density.” This means that POWERPASTE offers a range comparable to – or even greater than – gasoline. And it also provides a higher range than compressed hydrogen at a pressure of 700 bar.
Real and practical or laboratory dream?
The description sounds extremely promising, obviously, but we still need to see a vehicle in operation running on POWERPASTE and we need to know what it will cost, but I definitely like the concept. I’ll be watching this one.
If you’re on the fence about electric motorcycles, would this change your mind?
Duffey Wolvin says
Honestly, if it works outside the lab and can use even a portion of the existing petroleum infrastructure it could be a huge improvement. But the proof is in the pudding, I’ll believe it when it’s out of the lab and proven to work in the real world.
But having ridden electrics, it’s going to be fun to watch the Harley crowd lean of electric torque. It’ll be like when they found out about LED lights (because Harley made them) and 75% were running LED’s by the next season.
Paul Crowe says
One of these days, I have got to try out an electric, either a car or a motorcycle or both, just to see what it’s like. I have nothing against them, but the practical aspect has been a real challenge.
Ricardo E. Juarez says
Could this source of hydrogen be used to feed a normal combustion engine ( probably somewhat adapted gor the case)? There would be no CO2 emission or unburnt hydrocarbon; (perhaps some NOx) but mainly just water vapour. Besides a PEM fuel cell efficiency is around 30% and the efficiency of a modern well set IC engine is around 25%, that’s not very far apart. If something like that could be achieved, many IC engines could continue in use and the envioronmen would not be affected!!…
todd says
As long as e-bikes sound like PowerWheel Jeeps and deny you the added pleasure of running through the gears, I am not interested in one. Existing batteries work well for boring cars because you don’t need to mess with them or go to a facility every couple hundred miles to have something replaced. Seems like it would be rather heavy and an expensive automated refueling station. You would probably need to make reservations in advance!
-todd
Mick says
I don’t want any electric vehicle. Not interested. Petrol until I die!
zipi dachimp says
Sondors Metacycle !
zipi dachimp says
re: Todd: hockey card in the spokes! haha!
Paul Crowe says
Nope. Any electric vehicle should have the proper sound and that’s from the Jetsons. 🙂
JP says
ST1300 stock already sounds like the Jetsons (~_^) but a speaker with the noise should be part of the safety requirements for electrics
Meehawl says
I’d like to have a speaker with the voice of Morgan Freeman going brrrrRRRUUMM!! …. (fake gear change)… brrrrRRRUUUMMM!!! blasting out as I accelerated and an exaggerated SKKREEEE!!! whenever I pulled to a stop. I’d be fine with electrickery if that was possible.
Paul says
Electric bikes are the future, shame Harley killed one of the best with the price.
Biker drops thousands on a bike sound system, same biker complains he can’t hear the engine noise on an electric.
If it’s that important to you keep a gas engine bike, they’ll be around for years yet.
People act like they are being forced to change.