The purpose of this study is to develop a microcompact fuel-cell vehicle equipped with a hydrogen generation system. Hydrogen is generated by the reaction between water and activated aluminum particles without carbon dioxide emission. The activated aluminum is made of aluminum cutting waste through activation treatments such as compression crushing and freezing dry. One gram of the activated aluminum particles can generate about 1.1 liters of pure hydrogen. The developed hydrogen generator is consists of a water tank, an electrical pump, a reaction container, a condensate return tank, sensors and a one-chip microcomputer. It generated about 1-4 [l/min] of hydrogen over one hour. A microcompact vehicle was manufactured experimentally based on a delta trike. The front wheel was driven by a brushless motor of 100 [W]. The developed hydrogen generator and a fuel-cell of 100 [W] were equipped on the microcompact vehicle. It was confirmed that the vehicle drive at about 11 [km/h] over 90 minutes.

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In recent years, to cope with low carbon society and diversification of individual mobility, new kinds of vehicles have received a lot of attention to expand our mobility. This paper proposes a new concept of vehicle named portable personal vehicle. The proposed portable personal vehicle is small and light enough, which enables not only to carry the driver but also to be carried by the driver. The proposed portable personal vehicle can easily overcome barriers in mixed traffic such as university campus, airports, shopping malls etc. It is harmless to surrounding pedestrians. This paper describes a developed inverted pendulum vehicle based on the concept of portable personal vehicle.

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Automotive manufacturers have in the last few years put on the market new models of electric vehicles (EV) such as the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Roadster, demonstrating their awareness to the upcoming fossil/renewable energy transition. While the infrastructure around EVs is yet to be developed completely in most countries, potential buyers are being attracted by the idea of driving a vehicle which could save money by only using electricity as a source of energy. By extension, having a portable modular device in the form of a trailer attached to a vehicle and tted with extra energy storage would allow current EVs to be used beyond their usual range limits, as well as provide space for carrying extra gear. This paper focuses on the electrical modeling and design of a battery pack tted inside the trailer and a range estimation is calculated over a standardized driving cycle, using the high level programming language, Octave. A lithium based chemistry was chosen for numerical application, real data were used and case studies are presented to illustrate how the internal hardware of the trailer affects its performance. A value of 150 km of extra range was set as a target for the design, from which other trailer characteristics can be derived such as the weight distribution within the trailer and the maximum cornering speed. Overall, this work can be used as a preliminary design tool, able to accommodate different design options using the mathematical model employed.

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