COLUMBIA, MO. -- With gasoline prices getting out of control, imagine a vehicle that can get more than 2,500 miles per gallon.
Sounds impossible, right?
Well, not exactly.
Mizzou Engineering Students stopped building solar cars. They switched to hydrogen power. Members of the Mizzou Hydrogen Car Team decided that hydrogen technology has a better chance of replacing gasoline than solar cells.
Mizzou Hydrogen Car Team President Jonathan Lavalee said, “We kind of look at it as the fuel of the future. We hope to develop it to be something that will probably be driven by most vehicles on the road.”
They call their hydrogen car, Tigergen II since it’s their second prototype. The car’s engine uses compressed hydrogen that produces electricity to make the wheels go round and round.
Gasoline powered engines have been emitting pollution for decades. The exhaust from a hydrogen powered engine is only heat and water.
The Tigergen II will be competing in next month’s Shell Eco-Marathon in Houston, Texas. 16 Mizzou team members will compete against other engineering students that have a variety of vehicles powered by alternative fuels. It’s not race. The goal is to use as little fuel as possible before reaching the finish line. Mizzou students hope their hydrogen engine enters society sooner than later.
Team Sponsor Relations Director Victoria Hezel said, “The way to do that is possibly by having public transportation run on hydrogen. Then, you could get fueling systems in each city. Now, nobody is going to buy a hydrogen car because you can’t go from one city to another.”
Last year’s winning vehicle traveled 2,500 miles on one gallon of gasoline. The Mizzou hydrogen engine uses no gas. Maybe someday, we’ll say goodbye to the pump and hello to the compressed air tank.
For more information on the Mizzou Hydrogen Car Team, you can click on the link below.
You can also find them on Facebook by searching Tigergen.
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