Earlier this week, we showed you a motorcycle that runs on solar power, so it’s only fitting that now we bring you news of an electric bycle that runs on water! Developed by SIGNa Chemistry, this electric bicycle is able to run on a single charge for up to 100 kilometers. Impressive, but how is it done?
The technology, developed by SIGNa, is a power cell that uses
sodium silicide to drive the bike. When this compound, which is very similiar to gas, is mixed with water, it creates hydrogen gas which is then used to generate energy. Any excess energy is stored in batteries for late use, making the system fully renewable as well as recyclable.
“The extender uses inherently-safe reactive metal powders to produce electric power. By integrating SiGNa’s hydrogen-generation technology with an e-bike, we have demonstrated an unprecedented power solution with no greenhouse gas emissions,” says Michael Lefenfeld, President and CEO of SiGNa Chemistry, Inc. in a statement. SIGNa’s technology is also directly compatible with most electric bicycle models.
Whereas conventional electric bikes can run for about 50km on a single charge, SIGNa’s bikes can have their batteries easily swapped out and replaced meaning that journeys need not be interupted for lengthy charging periods. However, these fuel cells are not yet avaiable to purchase.
Don’t worry though, there are plans to release the bikes next summer, so if you’re interested, get pre-ordering now!
+ SIGNa
Via Wired
It’s a promising technology, but the article title is a little misleading. “It runs on water” implies that only water is exhausted during power generation. Really, it runs on SODIUM SILICIDE and water.
But it’s still a very, very cool technology!
Saying this bike runs on water is much like saying that my gasoline car runs on air.
The fuel is hydrogen and you need energy to take the hydrogen from the water, where is this energy coming from?
Is this not another battery technology? If so, you have to give it merit where it is due and evaluate its worth based on the same comparables. Is it rechargeable? How much energy can it hold by weight and volume? How much energy does it take to make it and how much safer are the spent batteries? etc etc…
The idea is innovative and looks promissing.
How safe is handling SODIUM SILICIDE?
In case of accident is there any specific danger to human life?
I will have to admit to getting a wrong impression when I read “runs on water”. I spent seconds wondering how the hell would something run on water.
I second what Edwin says – I’ve lost track of the number of people I’ve had to educate about the so called Car that run on water – which was the headline of the TV crew covering the car, rather than of the manufacturers (the car runs on a Metal-Hydride).
Please fix the headline before everyone starts generating conspiracy theories about why the “Bike that runs on water” has been supressed.
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Presumably in the case of a potentially ‘water fuelled’ bicycle the energy to split the hydrogen from the water is coming from the initial pedal power? Hence the pedals.
You could translate solar energy for this purpose in a car, no? Or make more flintstones type designs. lol.
I’m not saying any of these articles pertain to such devices however.