Lawrence Tech "Element One" team designs hydrogen-powered kart
We've been watching from afar as the students of
The kart's fuel cell, hydrogen tank, electric motor and super-capacitors are housed in a chassis consisting heavily of lightweight but expensive carbon fiber. Camille Robbins, head of Element One's chassis development team, described the design you see above as inspired by fighter jets and instantly recognizable as American. Whether you agree or not, it's one badass-lookin' H-bomb. The design will be finalized by mid-March when the various teams are required to resubmit their final designs to race organizers, after which the students will begin constructing the kart in advance of its race debut in
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PRESS RELEASE
Lawrence Tech students have new design for hydrogen-powered race kart
Southfield, Mich. – Students at Lawrence Technological University didn't take the path of least resistance when designing their zero-emission, hydrogen-fuel cell-powered race kart for the international Formula Zero competition.
Their design had to incorporate a large hydrogen fuel cell, a hydrogen tank, an electric motor and super capacitors that provide rapid acceleration needed in races where speeds of 70 mph are possible.
They reached out to students in the transportation design program at Lawrence Tech, engaged a CAD designer from Japan and introduced new materials made out of carbon fiber. The result is a design distinctly different from the karts currently competing on the professional race circuit.
"We wanted something that was cutting edge, but not too involved," said Camille Robbins, the Body & Chassis team leader for Element One, the student team composed of nearly 50 students from various colleges at Lawrence Tech.
In December, Element One submitted design specifications for vehicle construction, safety features and the electrical and hydrogen systems to the Formula Zero Championship, Student Edition, an Amsterdam-based racing series under the guidance of the Federation Internationale De L'Automobile (FIA).
The Formula Zero jury rated Lawrence Tech's proposal in the top three, along with submissions from Spain and the Netherlands. All teams have until Feb. 29 to respond to the jury's critique and submit final plans. By March 14 the jury will announce the teams that will compete in the 2008 race season beginning in Rotterdam this summer.
Support in designing the kart body came from students in Lawrence Tech's new transportation design bachelor's degree program. This groundbreaking program combines design theory with engineering so that students will gain the technical knowledge to maintain design intent. Instructors Vance Hanna and Keith Nagara worked with students as they conceptualized ideas that fit within the rules and regulations of the Formula Zero project.
Robbins said the final design of the vehicle was inspired by the new F-22 and F-35 fighter planes with the intent of creating something that was instantly recognizable as American.
Formula Zero's purpose is to publicize the potential of hydrogen fuel cells to provide a zero-emission solution for transportation. Generating public interest with a racing season will lead to financial support from corporate sponsors that want to publicize what they are doing to meet the growing demand for reduced vehicle emissions.
The goal of the Element One team is "to change the way people think about energy and sustainability through high-performance, zero-emissions racing."
For more information about the Formula Zero competition, go to www.formulazero.nl. The Element One website is www.ltufz.com.
Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, offers more than 60 undergraduate, master's and doctoral degree programs in Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Management. Founded in 1932, the 4,500-student, private university pioneered evening classes 75 years ago, and today has a growing number of weekend and online programs. Lawrence Tech's 102-acre campus is in Southfield, with education centers in Lansing, Livonia, Clinton Township, Traverse City and Petoskey. Lawrence Tech also offers programs with partner universities in Canada, Europe and Asia.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tony 8:31PM (3/02/2008)
I just found an interesting organization that I think is doing good for the planet, and I'd like to know what you think.
They're taking a racing concept (which is usually the worst polluting form of sporting and entertainment) and green-ify-ing it by requiring that the cars be 100% zero emission. Plus, they make sure the entire "circus" that revolves around the race is as low-polluting as possible. And, on top of that, they give back to the communities they visit by hiring local foster youth to work the events.
Is it too good to be true? First and foremost, I've never heard of a 100% zero emission race before. When I think of racing, I usually think of NASCAR and F1 vehicles that are competing to learn who can burn the most fossil fuel the fastest. If it is legit, it seems like an interesting endeavor.
Check them out. What do you think?
Zero Emission Racing: http://www.zeroeracing.com/
2007 ZER Season Highlights Video - Racing With No Emissions!: http://www.zeroeracing.com/media.html
Photos from 2007 ZER Race in Lake Tahoe, California: http://www.zeroeracing.com/race.html
Reply
Wayne Kerr 11:09AM (5/15/2008)
One should ask about the finicial outcomes of a project such as this. I read in the paper that this project is estimated at over 600 thousand dollars. Granted there are always donations and costs that cannot be avoided when going into any sort of project, but that is a ridiculous amount of money. I don't know where these kids can get this amount of money, but I don't think it is worth it either. A 150cc professional go kart (yes a very similar design as this picture above) sells for under 5000 dollars. Fuel efficiency is very expensive and at an economically dramatic time like this, no one should be thinking of spending 600 grand on a go kart that can't even accelerate faster than one that costs 0.83% of the total budget.
If this were research for a more fuel efficient production vehicle or something that can be used on a large scale, this program would rock. Unfortunately, it sounds like the students don't learn as much as they say. Other sources (school papers, other teams, etc.) talked about getting a supplier to work/donate certain components or do package studies. It is even stated above that they outsourced all of their CAD work to Japan. Certain construction efforts cannot be done by just anyone, so some outsourcing of components is inevidable. I don't know all the specifics of a project like this, but it sounds like the students do more of a theoretical overview of a fuel cell'ed go kart rather than an actual practical hands on training of alternative fuel sources.
All in all, I know this sounds like a bashing, but I do hope this school does well in the competition and bring publicity back to the Motor City for being the best in automobiles!
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Phil 10:18AM (4/05/2009)
I was at the National Hydrogen Association Convention in Columbia, SC March 31-April 2, 2009 where LTU drove their Hydrogen Fuel Cell/ Electric Kart. This was a nice group of talented students. This kart is not comparable to a typical 125 cc kart by any means.
As an engineering project the students designed and built the chassis and either built from scratch or modified stock parts to assemble it. Size wise it's larger and heavier (over 500 lbs without the driver because of the fuel cell), but it does accelerate and go!
Watched as they raced it, broke it, repaired it and raced it again! Their adviser Rob Fletcher gives very little input as the TEAM has learned to troubleshoot and does their own hands-on repair work.
When asked about who built the kart, the only thing they outsourced were the carbon fiber body skins. The students had CNC'ed the molds but they ran out of time to finish the molding so a supplier did the forming. Check out the LTU Element One web site for more information.
As for cost of the project, I heard it was more like a $100K, but the kart has so many sensors and computer monitored systems it is more like an Indy race car than a go-kart. Like any race car the project is a learning evolution, and many of the parts are on the second or third generation as the students learn what worked (or didn't) for their kart. How do you learn to make smaller, lighter, higher-performance parts...experience, and these LTU students are getting it. Some components looked butt-ugly while others were very elegant, but the kart was well integrated.
GM, Mercedes, KIA all had production Fuel Cell cars available at the convention for the public to test drive. Everyone - kids and adults alike wanted to drive the kart!!!!
LTU Element One was a big hit at the convention with both the public (hundreds of kids) and the press (Motorweek, Speed TV, NBC to name a few) so I think their effort was well worth it. Detroit can be proud of them!
As for money, donate some to them if you can, you're helping to educate America's future engineers. The students paid for their own travel to South Carolina (carpooling) and were grilling hot-dogs and hamburgs it the parking lot to save their cash.