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Thread: Yamaha begins road tests of fuel cell motorcycle

  1. #1
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    Yamaha begins road tests of fuel cell motorcycle

    Yamaha has announced the start of road tests on a motorcycle powered by a methanol fuel cell. The aim is to collect data on the environmental impact of the fuel technology.

    The tests are being conducted on the FC06 model, which is based on the firm's Passol electric scooter. The motorcycle carries fuel cells and a 4-litre fuel tank, enabling it to travel more than 100 kilometres,
    and emits less carbon dioxide than gasoline-powered models, according to the company.

    Yamaha aim to market the vehicle in 2005.

    Honda are also developing fuel cell motorcycles using hydrogen in an effort to produce a more environmentally-friendly mode of transportation.
    http://www.motobke.co.uk

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    Wonder what it sounds like.....

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    Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

    I'm ALL for saving the environment (I spent all of my high school years doing that in depth), but I'm very sceptical about fuel cell, hybrid, electric, flux capacitor driven vehicles. I'm under the impression that, for the moment anyway, they are inferior when compared with normal petrol powered vehicles. They can't perform as well, or go as far as what we are already using, so why would we, I, change over to something less efficient?

    Now, ofcourse I understand that if we don't start doing something about the consumption of natural resources, we'll have no choice in a decade or 5 to plug in an extension lead and drive 500m to the next power socket, and so on. But, if they want me to spend my money on one now, it better be at least equal to what I've got at the moment, and look the part too.

    Maybe in 50 years, we'll all own alternative powered vehicles, but keep a petrol beast for weekend enjoyment

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    a while ago...

    I did some reasearch on electric motors,
    found that the electric cars and motorbikes (could be power by fuel cells) ran faster than convetional motors.
    In fact the pikepeak hillclimb electric race cars had to have sirens so as not to hit people that didnt hear it travelling at 200+ks on gravel up hill track
    Reactor Online. Sensors Online. Weapons Online. All Systems Nominal.

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    Quote Originally Posted by StoneChucker
    I'm ALL for saving the environment (I spent all of my high school years doing that in depth), but I'm very sceptical about fuel cell, hybrid, electric, flux capacitor driven vehicles. I'm under the impression that, for the moment anyway, they are inferior when compared with normal petrol powered vehicles. They can't perform as well, or go as far as what we are already using, so why would we, I, change over to something less efficient?
    One interesting option available right now is biodiesel: a standard diesel will run quite nicely on many vegetable oils. There's already a lot of this dumped as waste (eg from fast food joints), so why not use them as fuel instead?

    It doesn't solve emissions problems: it does, however, eliminate a huge number of environmental negatives caused by the supply of oil.
    Look, it's an itsy bitsy Bandit.

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    fuel cell

    i think hydrogen fuel cell is the fuel of the future. derived from water by product is water, in fact i think we have it now if they could figure out a way to charge us for normal water.

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    Quote Originally Posted by scroter
    i think hydrogen fuel cell is the fuel of the future. derived from water by product is water, in fact i think we have it now if they could figure out a way to charge us for normal water.
    They've been trialling (or had been, I've not seen one of them for a while) hydrogen fuel cell powered busses in London.

    Very quiet, seem smooth and efficient. Every now and then, there is a spout of water puffed out of the back!

    http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/download...cell-buses.pdf
    http://www.motobke.co.uk

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    Quote Originally Posted by scroter
    i think hydrogen fuel cell is the fuel of the future. derived from water by product is water, in fact i think we have it now if they could figure out a way to charge us for normal water.
    It may end up being the way of the future..., but at the moment it's just a big have. Everyone gets really excited about these hydrogen fuel cells, on top gear they were talking about it - it made it sound as if these cars could actually run on water. The actual case at the moment, is that a huge amount of power (electricity) is used to seperate the hydrogen from the water... so at the moment they are not environmentally friendly.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stinger
    It may end up being the way of the future..., but at the moment it's just a big have. Everyone gets really excited about these hydrogen fuel cells, on top gear they were talking about it - it made it sound as if these cars could actually run on water. The actual case at the moment, is that a huge amount of power (electricity) is used to seperate the hydrogen from the water... so at the moment they are not environmentally friendly.
    don't know about huge amounts of power, using fossil fuel generation to generate hydrogen still produces less carbon dioxide than the equivalent amount of driving with an internal combustion engine. ideally/eventually, this power would be supplied by renewable sources.

    the total efficiency of a car is about 18%, the maximum efficiency of a fuel cell is 80%, and the general efficiency of an electric motor is 80%. not sure about the efficiency of the water splitting process.
    Eat the riches! Eat your money! The revolution will be DELICIOUS!!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jamezo
    don't know about huge amounts of power, using fossil fuel generation to generate hydrogen still produces less carbon dioxide than the equivalent amount of driving with an internal combustion engine. ideally/eventually, this power would be supplied by renewable sources.

    the total efficiency of a car is about 18%, the maximum efficiency of a fuel cell is 80%, and the general efficiency of an electric motor is 80%. not sure about the efficiency of the water splitting process.
    The generation of electricy is about 50% (about 80% is possible though), if you make the hydrogen electrolytically then it's about 60% efficient. Then you have to factor in the energy required to compress the hydrogen into your tank so that you can actually travel any distance... if we go with something like 4000psi, then you're again using about 20% of the power.


    So at this stage a HUGE amount of power is required - and in NZ where we don't have nuclear power that demand would have to be made up from fossil fuels.... so we'd burn more petrol than the petrol car alternative.

    But thankfully the process of making hydrogen that we used above isn't the only way. It's also possible to use ethanol, and other processes. This way it would be much better. So I think it could well be the future.... It's just important to remember that at the moment these "Fuel Cells" are just batteries, they don't turn water into power !

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stinger
    The generation of electricy is about 50% (about 80% is possible though), if you make the hydrogen electrolytically then it's about 60% efficient. Then you have to factor in the energy required to compress the hydrogen into your tank so that you can actually travel any distance... if we go with something like 4000psi, then you're again using about 20% of the power.


    So at this stage a HUGE amount of power is required - and in NZ where we don't have nuclear power that demand would have to be made up from fossil fuels.... so we'd burn more petrol than the petrol car alternative.

    But thankfully the process of making hydrogen that we used above isn't the only way. It's also possible to use ethanol, and other processes. This way it would be much better. So I think it could well be the future.... It's just important to remember that at the moment these "Fuel Cells" are just batteries, they don't turn water into power !
    you wouldn't believe how many morons think you can run a car on water, this one guy I know passionately believes that there exists a car that uses a 9V battery to electrolyse water, and burns the produced hydrogen ICE style. he supposedly has seen it for himself, and cannot be swayed by certain principles of thermodynamics...
    Eat the riches! Eat your money! The revolution will be DELICIOUS!!!

  12. #12
    The way of the future is the Joe Cell - of course all the car companies have killed those resposable and burried all the plans - why don't Yamaha get their act together and put a Joe Cell in the Royal Star?

    I got the plans for a Joe Cell,very easy to make...one day.....

    Joe Cell
    In and out of jobs, running free
    Waging war with society

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    hmm, read up on the joe cell, invented by some guy who had some kind of near death experience, and was supposedly guided into how to make it through some kind of spiritual guidance.

    the people who have made it 'work' believe that it takes its power from psychic 'orgone' energy. it's kind of a reccurring theme on the net, psychicly powered free energy sources...
    Eat the riches! Eat your money! The revolution will be DELICIOUS!!!

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    Kewl, psychically powered free energy

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    Quote Originally Posted by Motu
    The way of the future is the Joe Cell - of course all the car companies have killed those resposable and burried all the plans - why don't Yamaha get their act together and put a Joe Cell in the Royal Star?

    I got the plans for a Joe Cell,very easy to make...one day.....

    Joe Cell
    busted link??? or bad url
    anyone up for a conspiracy theory?

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