Hertfordshire hydrogen car triumph

A racing car running on hydrogen, believed to be the world’s first, has won the ‘low-carbon’ category in this year’s Formula Student competition at Silverstone. The car, built by a team from the University of Hertfordshire, has a 92 brake horsepower internal combustion engine adapted to run on hydrogen, and incorporates a new fully-recyclable material called Pure, with low costs.

“We are very excited about Pure,” said Ian Burgess, this year’s Formula Student team leader. “In previous years, we used carbon fibre everywhere; Pure is much more environmentally-friendly and is a third lighter than aluminium with the same stiffness.”

The IET is a partner in Formula Student, which is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Students are challenged to design, build and compete as a team with their own single-seater racing car.

The low-carbon category was new this year. Other entrants were Oxford Brookes University with a hybrid racing car and Coventry University with a biofuel car.

(Source: www.theiet.com , July 2008)