The hydrogen bike is rolling into the future

Vélo MagPragma Mobility manufactures, rents and recycles the only “hydrogen bicycle” in the world. (DR)

In Biarritz, Pragma Mobility manufactures, rents and recycles the only “hydrogen bike” in the world. If fuel cells, less polluting than lithium batteries, are not THE miracle solution, they have a bright future ahead of them: especially on our bicycles?

Olivier Haralambon updated on October 15, 2021 at 5:00 p.m.

No noise, no smoke. We pride ourselves on driving electric rather than diesel, and it would be showing bad faith not to see any improvement. But for as much the electric propulsion could not be adorned with all the virtues, and an apparent progress can prove to be only a new avatar of the problem.

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Admittedly, the movement of an electric vehicle does not generate immediate pollution (except for the particles generated by mechanical wear), but the same cannot be said of its manufacture, nor of its future: because, if electricity is a natural phenomenon, batteries are an ecological headache.

Polluting batteries

From this point of view, one can wonder whether the lithium batteries that currently power electric motors are much better than the good old lead batteries, sometimes the cause of massive poisoning phenomena but essential to the starters of our motors. thermal.

The presence in their composition of certain metals greatly aggravates their carbon footprint from manufacturing. More or less rare, these minerals generate an excessively polluting mining activity. It should be noted in passing that lithium itself is not so much rare as "diffuse" and that it involves the extraction of phenomenal quantities of rocks, enormous water consumption, the massive use of thermal vehicles, etc

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Moreover, at present, the recycling of these batteries is imperfect to say the least: it consists in melting the metals to separate them by magnetization, but the lithium itself, being present not in metallic form but in the form of salts, is not recoverable!

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The fuel cell, the hydrogen bicycle

The bicycle, an ecological emblem if ever there was one, does not escape these heavy stakes. "It is estimated that 600 million VAE (electrically assisted bicycles) will be sold worldwide in the next 10 years, the ecological challenge posed by soft mobility is immense", explains Pierre Forté, CEO of Pragma-Industries, a company specializing in fuel cells, whose subsidiary Pragma-Mobility now produces the only “hydrogen bicycle” in the world. A hydrogen fuel cell transforms the chemical energy, released by the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, into electrical energy, thus rejecting only water molecules.

1 to 5 minutes The charging time of a hydrogen bicycle.

“Above all, continues Mr. Forté, our battery contains 5 to 10,000 times less metal than a lithium battery. These are very small quantities of platinum - 5 to 7 mg per battery - which is a rare metal, which as such must be recovered, but which we take responsibility for recycling ourselves. »

On the performance side, let's mention the "energy density" of the system, which is interesting to say the least, since 1 kg of hydrogen is equivalent to the energy stored in... 75 lithium batteries. Thus the Alpha bike makes way for a 3-litre tank at 300 bars of pressure, which allows the system to deliver 1,150 W/h! The recharge time is ridiculously low (1 to 5 minutes), and the range is between 100 and 200 km. The life of the battery is 13 or 14 years (compared to 2 to 4 for a lithium battery), and that of the tank 25 years.

“Which has no interest for the user, remarks Pierre Forté. But for us it means that the bike has a residual value, since our activity, from production to recycling through rental, completes the complete life cycle of the system. The object at the end of its life is still a source of added value. It is therefore its recycling that allows us to lower the purchase price of the bike! In 2017, the prototypes "released" at around €15,000, the Alpha Neo model should only display €4,690. As for long-term rental, which we want to prioritize, our objective is to lower the price to below €90 per month from next year. It's not economies of scale, it's engineering. »

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Not the panacea, but...

However, hydrogen is not the miracle solution. Not only are charging stations not commonplace _ they are part of the pack that Pragma Mobility offers its customers - but at present, 90% of the production of di-hydrogen, certainly less polluting than that of batteries lithium, is far from neutral for the environment in terms of greenhouse gases.

“We try to do everything in France”

Pierre Forté, CEO of Pragma Mobility

"It depends on how it is made, there are more virtuous solutions than others," continues the CEO of Pragma Industries. There will be geographical differences, as with the production of electricity: if you drive electric in France, you drive nuclear. If it's in Germany, you drive on 50% coal. And in England, 46% natural gas. »

The road to “100% green” hydrogen is still long. But the announcement made this Wednesday, October 12 by the President of the Republic, to allocate 7 billion euros to the hydrogen production sector, is good news.

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In addition, this plan is a promise of subsidies for potential customers of Pragma Mobility, which are local authorities. “On our side, we manufacture and we recycle. We obviously try to do everything in France. For now, we have a recycling workshop in Biarritz, a lab in Grenoble. These 7 billion are not made to feed the Chinese economy! concludes Mr. Forté.

published on October 15, 2021 at 11:57 am updated on October 15, 2021 at 5:00 pm