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National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), southern Taiwan, has unveiled its very first hydrogen fueled electric scooter called “Pegasus One” recently. It is a update of the original electrical scooter by combing fuel cell and lithium battery, brining it a voyage of up to 160km.
“The test result is promising!” said Dr. Wei-Hsiang Lai, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at NCKU. The maiden voyage of 80 km is accomplished easily, and the overall range will reach more than 160 km.”
The “Pegasus One” developed by Dr. Lai’s research team in cooperation with local enterprises made its maiden trial run on December 1. It completed a round-trip drive of over 80 km between Kaohsiung and Tainan. “Pegasus One” is upgraded from the original electrical scooter to the current hybrid power combining fuel cell and lithium battery.
Dr. Lai pointed that the overall vehicle structure is revised, especially its power and monitoring system. Fuel cell is added to enhance its range with multiplying electrical capacity by charging battery from fuel cell.
The vehicle has added a 3-kW Ballard fuel cell and two high pressure hydrogen storage cylinders to the vehicle to build a power system that runs by transmitting hydrogen energy to electricity via the fuel cell. The high efficiency of fuel cell as well as the clean energy of hydrogen, which only emits water moisture, make it an almost zero emission vehicle with a high performance.
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“Pegasus One” shares a similar concept with Toyota’s FCV, Mirai, which uses two high pressure bottle to supply the hydrogen. The high pressure bottle installed on Pegasus One has a storage pressure of up to 300 bar, with 6.8 liter fabricated by carbon fiber reinforced plastics with safety approval; in contrast, the storage pressure bottle of FCV is as high as 700 bar. As long as the storage pressure can be raised up to 700 bar in Taiwan, the range of “Pegasus One” can be further extended to 300 km, according to Dr. Lai.
(Photo Credit: NCKU)