WORKING TOWARDS A GREENER FUTURE – THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOTYPE FUEL CELL- BASED VEHICLE

Abstract

The Shell Eco-marathon is an annual event thatchallenges high school and college students to design anddevelop energy efficient vehicles in the following categories;•  Prototype: 3 or 4-wheel electrically driven vehiclesusing solar, hydrogen or grid charging as a source,and,•  Urban Concept: 4-wheel conventional vehicles withinternal combustion engines.The 2011 round takes place in Lausitz, Germany. Students ofthe Haagse Hoogeschool entered in the Prototype categorywith a four wheel hydrogen vehicle. The group comprises 5final year engineering and business students. Eachengineering student was responsible for certain tasks in thedesign of the prototype; such as the chassis, the fuel cell, thesteering column and the braking system, while the businessstudent was responsible for funding and sponsorships. Thispaper describes the intial processes involved in the selectionof an approrpriate fuel cell for the vehicle.Index Terms ⎯ Eco-marathon, electric vehicle, energyefficient, fuel cell.