Imperial College London will be represented in the 2008 Formula Zero Championships by the Imperial Racing Green Team, a group of students who have designed and built their own fuel cell go-kart, a vehicle which is smaller than a standard racing car.

The Formula Zero Championship will take place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to promote the use of motorsports technology that does not emit CO2. Universities from around the world are entering the competition with hydrogen fuel cells, a method of electricity production the only by-product of which is clean water.

The Imperial Racing Green team, along with six other teams from the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, will compete in a series of time trails to find the fastest go-kart, ‘flying starts’ to find the go-kart that does the fastest lap, and conventional ‘standing starts’ which sees go-karts completing a series of laps and competing to be the first across the finish line.

A panel of experts will also inspect and award marks to each team for their innovations in go-kart design and construction. At the end of the two day competition all marks will be tallied to find the winner.

Imperial Racing Green engineering undergraduates and postgraduates have given up their summer holiday to prepare the go-kart for its first international race. The team has been working around the clock testing and installing the fuel cell into their formula zero class vehicle, which is slightly larger than a standard go-kart.

The team has made a number of safety improvements to their go-kart design and has also maximised its efficiency and speed. In particular, they have installed super capacitators which improve acceleration and allow the fuel cell to operate more smoothly. They have also installed a regenerative breaking system, which uses the go-kart’s electric motors as generators during braking and recycles energy to give an extra power boost to the go-kart.

The electric motors also allow the driver to draw on the maximum amount of engine power to instantly accelerate from zero to its maximum speed, making the go-kart’s overall performance comparable to a conventional combustion engine used in Formula racing.

A crowd of thousands is expected to watch teams compete in a specially constructed track in the Willemsplein, a suburb located in the heart of Rotterdam. Imperial Racing Green team manager and third year mechanical engineering student, Clemens Lorf, says a buzz of anticipation and enthusiasm has hit the Imperial Racing Green camp as final preparations are made before their journey begins. He comments:

“We know that this competition is a big responsibility and high expectations rest on our shoulders. However, we are very excited about our Racing Green project which demonstrates that the UK and especially Imperial is taking active steps for a sustainable future in vehicle design.”

Other universities competing include the University of Technology Delft, Netherlands, Lawrence Technological University, USA, and the University of California, USA, along with Euplatech from Spain and the Zero Emission Racing team from Belgium.

Mr Lorf says the Formula Zero Championship will give Imperial students the chance to test their vehicle, share ideas, and see the technological advancements other universities are making in zero emission technology. He explains:

“We’ve only seen the concepts of the other competing cars at this stage but we are quite impressed with Lawrence Technological University’s Element One go-kart design, which has a carbon fibre chassis to make the vehicle lighter to improve its overall performance. I am looking forward to exchanging ideas with them.”

The race is the culmination of two years hard work undertaken by Imperial students who have been working on the Racing Green initiative. This has included developing go-kart designs from the original prototypes which relied on smaller fuel cells and electric batteries for power. This is the first time the team has used fuel cell technology to fully power their vehicle.

Imperial Racing Green is an initiative, undertaken by the College’s Faculty of Engineering, to develop and train the engineers of the future. The project gives undergraduates hands-on experience in the design, development and construction of fuel cell vehicles with competitions like Formula Zero giving undergraduates a chance to test their Kart on the race track. The lessons learnt from designing and building these vehicles is also used to further various research programs.

Full list of Imperial Racing Green Event Team

Team Manager: Clemens Lorf, 3rd year Mech Eng
Chief Engineer: Sam Tippets, 3rd year Mech Eng
Safety Officer: Simon Johnson, 3rd year Mech Eng
Head Mechanic: Christopher Nobbs, 3rd year Mech Eng
Software Development: Toby Schulz, 3rd year Mech Eng
Fuel Cell Supervisor: Mardit Matian, PhD Student, ESE
Fuel Cell Team: Florent Silve and Sarah O’Neill, final year UROP students, ESE
Technical Director: Dr Ralph Clague, Mech Eng
Project Manager: Dr Gregory Offer, ESE
Academic representative: Dr Stephen Skinner, Materials
Driver: David Jones, 2nd year Physics
Driver: Christopher Martyr, 1st year Mech Eng

The complete 07/08 Imperial Racing Green Team consisted of 69 undergraduate students, supported by 33 academic staff and postgraduate students, from 7 departments within the Faculty of Engineering.