by Alisa Giardinelli
4/23/2009

Andres Pacheco '09 and Alex Bell '09 showed off their eco-friendly hydrogen-powered motorcycle for the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet.

The Discovery Channel's Daily Planet recently featured the hydrogen-powered motorcycle built by Alex Bell '09 and Andres Pacheco '09 in a segment titled, "Built in Your Backyard." Also featured is engineering professor Nelson Macken, who worked with them on the year-long project. 

Although the bike's top speed is only 20 kilometers an hour, more noteworthy is what comes out of the tailpipe - nothing. "Basically, what it does is take hydrogen gas," Alex says, "and converts it with the oxygen from the air into the electricity that we use to run the motors." Watch more.

Alex, an engineering major from New York City, and Andres, an engineering and economics major from Caracas, Venezuela, filmed their early test runs over winter break and received attention in Wired last month. Their ultimate goal: to use the vehicle as a "point of comparison to other technologies in terms of efficiency, range, and speed" and to use real world data to "evaluate the viability of a hydrogen economy."  more