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Sep 24, 2009 04:25 PM | 10
Editor's Note: A team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students are traveling up New York's Hudson River this week on the New Clermont, a 6.7-meter boat outfitted with a pair of 2.2-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cells to power the boat's motor. Their journey began September 21 from Manhattan's Pier 84 and will cover 240 kilometers (at a projected speed of 8 kilometers per hour). After making several stops along the way, the crew expects to arrive back at Rensselaer Polytech's campus in Troy, N.Y., on September 25. This is the third of Scientific American.com's blogs chronicling this expedition, called the New Clermont Project.
Th
e New Clermont Project crew is learning valuable lessons about what it will take to make hydrogen power not only possible but practical as well. After losing both hydrogen fuel-cell-powered boat motors Tuesday, the New Clermont spent Wednesday docked in Beacon, N.Y., while the Rensselaer students figured out what went wrong.
"Our Plug Power GenDrive fuel cell units work wonderfully in the context of the materials handling environment, to power the forklifts for which they were designed," William Gathright, a doctoral student in Rensselaer's Materials Science and Engineering Department and the project's leader, blogged Wednesday. "The trolling motors we are using are flawless in the typical application attached to marine batteries. But combine the fuel cell units and the motors with some improbably long cables and the Law of Unintended Consequences takes effect."
The analysis: One of the diodes or MOSFETs (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor) within the motor controller was damaged. A MOSFET is used to amplify or switch electronic signals.
"Our workaround was ruthless but effective," Gathright blogged. "We bypassed the motor controller entirely cutting the 'brains' (controller) out of the system leaving only the 'legs' (the motor itself)." This means that as the New Clermont continues its voyage today, the crew will have to manually regulate the speed of the motors.
Reflecting on Wednesday's troubleshooting session, Gathright noted that the technology available to create hydrogen-powered vehicles and vessels exists. "It is the endless permutations, the heretofore unimagined combinations of these technologies that can introduce quirks," he added.
Images courtesy of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Tags:
New Clermont,
Rensselaer Polytech,
hydrogen
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10 Comments
Add CommentAt least in a boat, if fire occurs you can douse it with water to put out the flames. I for one am looking forward to hydrogen and hydroxy gas motors for boat and transport purposes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisImprovise, gerry-rig, McGuyver it., Think out of the box. These valuable lessons I learned at RPI on projects similiar to this. These type of experiments, building prototypes and trying out the equipment in real world situations lead to new ways to solve problems. This is the essence of an engineering school. This will last throughout your life time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAh, yes, the mechanically illiterate in the real world. I used to supervise a graduate student/professor machine shop. They always left the chuck key in the lathe head or the drill press.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thistest
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAAARRRRRH, lubbers, the problem is not with your geeky selves but with your profanation of a sailing vessel. You have alienated the gods by dismasting her, by relying on a motor of any kind rather than wind and sail as her primary propulsion, and the irredeemably not-done thing of leaving fenders out underway. God knows what other indignities closer inspection would turn up. Give up on this one, you're cursed, and buy one of those, ptui, plastic bathtubs meant to be engine-driven from birth, and see if things don't change for you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTechnically, they should have put a couple of batteries between the fuel cell and the motors to add some impedance, but I believe "voyager" is closer to True North. One must always pay proper respect to the Gods, and the Gods of sailing vessels are a particularly jealous bunch, who've saved more fools from drowning than they've ever been properly thanked for.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is not energy efficient> http://tinyurl.com/hydrogenhoax and http://tinyurl.com/hydrogenknol
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