Tom from Delfgauw, together with his team, wins the Eco-marathon

In Vreugdeschakel 103 there was an article mentioning that Tom Vreugdenhil and his team worked on the most efficient hydrogen-car. With this car the students wanted to participate the Eco-marathon. The race was won by Tom and his team, which will be explained in this article.

Driving from Amsterdam to Greece and back in a car ran on just 1kg (2.2lbs) of hydrogen? Tom Vreugdenhil from Delfgauw, together with his team, showed that it is possible. With an efficiency of driving 486 kilometers (302 miles) per 1 cubic meter (264 US gallons) of hydrogen, which basically comes down to 5407 kilometers (3360 miles) on a single kg of hydrogen, the Eco-Runner Team Delft managed to win the Eco-marathon and leave their competitors in the dust far behind them.

Hydrogen-run car
This year, after two editions skipped due to COVID, the Eco-marathon, an international race which is all about going furthest with the least amount of fuel, took place in the Netherlands. At the TT Circuit Assen the teams were given four runs to get the best possible result. Tom Vreugdenhil: “Before the 4 runs we had

to go through the technical inspection in which every single design requirement was checked. This is a rather difficult obstacle to get past which takes a lot of time.” Luckily the team was able to get a good headstart in the first run. At the last day they were so far ahead that there was no danger to their leading position, and the team managed to increase their efficiency even more. The Eco-Runner Team is a self-guided group of 23 students from the Technical University Delft (TU Delft), all with different study-backgrounds, that designed and build new hydrogen-run cars every year since 2005. Tom, the Chief Vehicle Dynamics, was this year’s end-supervisor for steering, wheels, suspension, and breaking. Ever since September last year the current team has been working on the Eco-Runner XII, their newest hydrogen-run city car. “After months of analytics, simulation, design, and building we’re very proud to have this superlight hydrogen-car win the marathon!” says Tom Vreugdenhil.

Huge improvement
With the reached efficiency, 5407 kilometers on a single kilogram of hydrogen, the students from Delft smashed their previous record of 3369 kilometers per kg of hydrogen (2093 miles/2.2lbs). By continuing to innovate and looking for the boundaries regarding technical abilities they want to show the importance of efficiency and the potential of hydrogen for the mobility sector. The team says they’re simply stunned: “We worked so hard, and dreamed of reaching such a high level of efficiency, but to have actually been able to reach it? The feeling is absolutely unbelievable!”