Coming soon to a venue near you: – a fuel cell-powered Segway.

[SF Segway Tours]

The Segway may look like a mode of transportation straight out of “The Jetsons” television program, but it is being used throughout the world by individuals, business, government and police.

Now, riding the Segway may become even more convenient, thanks to a project under way at the University of South Carolina’s College of Engineering and Computing. Carolina researchers unveiled a fuel cell-powered Segway Thursday (Oct. 25) to demonstrate how a Segway, usually powered by lithium-ion batteries that have to be re-charged, can have a longer “ride time.”

“We wanted to see if we could extend the range of the Segway’s power by adding a fuel cell,” said Dr. John Weidner, a professor of chemical engineering who developed the fuel cell-powered Segway with fellow chemical engineer Chuck Holland.

http://uscnews.sc.edu/ENGR307b-07.html

[SEGsby]

Looks like the center console of the Segway is extended up by about a foot... Is that where they put the fuel for the power cell?

SEGsby

[dynk]

Looks and sounds really good. I wonder how much it will cost for the fuel cells?

We went for a 10 mile glide today in the State Forest and the x2 was down to 1 bar when we got back, my i2 still had 4 bars.

[JohnM]

Deja vu all over again. (http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage295.html)

[Isidore]

I was going to point at the picture that John remembered but he beat me to it. I think the key to that is the date: 2003. I am sure fuel cells have moved on since then and the combination of a small cell and an ultra-capacitor could eventually do the trick, though it would mean that your segway would leave a trickle of water down the carpet like an incontinent pet....

[KSagal]

THe older version, which appears to be on an e-167 or an i-167 with e-bags, was at the segfest in Florida in 2004. I have seen it and think it was an e, but my memory is not strong.

At the time, the machine was running on NiMH and the fuel cell about doubled the range...

[polo_pro]

Any type of fuel cell is a real boon for long distance gliding. Besides the issues of standing for long periods of times (or sitting on a segseat), the real logistical challenge to long distance gliding is battery management. The crux of the problem is that it takes about 8 hours to charge a pair of Li-Ions, and only 2 hours to drain them. So you have to lug around extra off board chargers, and spare pairs of batteries to the tune of about 100 pounds of gear.

BUT, if you have a fuel cell that gives you 4 hours of use (especially since you'll have a very light load without all the extra equipment), then you really only need to carry enough fuel to refuel it once during the day. And you're set...long distance gliding becomes quite easy and convenient.

[SEGsby]

Not really. The real news is about how small the current fuel cell designs are.

SEGsby

Deja vu all over again. (http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage295.html)

[Isidore]

It's great and expected that they have got smaller but what about the price? If we are going to see them they need to be productionized to the point that you don't need a second mortgage to buy one

[Brandis]

No danger of water damage. There are fuel cell systems which use a fully enclosed circuit. Some fuel cells work both ways, so you can basically just fill your tanke with water one time and when current is added to the cell, it starts splitting the water into hydrogen and oxygen, which then is stored in 2 separate tanks. Once there is no more power flowing into the cell, the process is reversed, oxygen and hydrogen flow back into the cell, power is generated and the water returns into the fuel tank.

I do have a experiment box which contains a small car that works on this principle and which uses solar panels to generat the power to split the water into Hydrogen and Oxygen. There is even enough spare power that the solar panel can run the motors while splitting the water. Once the sun is gone, the reverse process kicks in and power is generated by the fusion process.

Marc