I tested a hydrogen powered bike. Could this be the real green future?

Last week I attended the Micromobility Europe event in Amsterdam, where I saw many familiar companies and a few new ones in the wider world of micromobility.

One of the most interesting new startups I saw at the show was Hydroride Europe AG, which demonstrated several hydrogen-powered bicycles and a small home hydrogen generator to “recharge” the bike by producing small bottles of hydrogen gas. From a distance, these bikes don't look much different from any other electric bike you've probably seen before.

And honestly, up close they aren't even that different.

You'll still notice the hub motor driving the wheel, and what appears to be a battery holder, either in the downtube or hidden in a post-mounted unit. But when you turn the key and open the “battery” cover, you quickly realize that underneath it is a small green bottle, and not a shrink-wrapped blue battery. These small hydrogen tanks, about the size of a 500ml water bottle, hold enough hydrogen for about 60 km. They feed hydrogen into an onboard hydrogen fuel cell, which uses a chemical process to convert the hydrogen into electricity, the only output being water.

Perhaps, with proper modification of the composition when mixing, this water could be drunk.

My first ride on a hydrogen bike

After touring the exhibition, I took one of the hydrogen bicycles and took it for a test ride through the streets of Amsterdam around the exhibition. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was very similar to… every other European e-bike I've tried.

The power was good… modest, but good. The trip was comfortable. And it looked like a pretty normal electric bike.

Honestly, I think that's the point. Hydrogen is not intended to be a radical game changer in terms of performance. At the end of the day, the motor is still a basic 250W e-bike motor. So the ride feels like a regular 250W electric bike. The main difference is where the energy comes from. In this case, from a small white box that looks like a laser printer and is a home hydrogen generator.

If anything, the most surprising thing about the trip itself was how unsurprising it was. I didn't have to change anything about my riding.

Electric bicycles are already widespread. Why hydrogen?

It's true, battery-powered electric bikes are everywhere. If a hydrogen vs battery electric bike war ever started, you'd think it would be over before it even started. So why are we still talking about hydrogen bikes? Well, there are a few more advantages over traditional electric bikes. Almost all electric bikes these days use lithium-ion batteries, which typically require problematic or rare materials to produce. As much as battery manufacturers try to limit the amount of these minerals, we are often still beholden to suppliers in several countries who use sometimes unethical methods to procure the necessary materials and produce these batteries.

On the other hand, hydrogen can be produced in the living room or kitchen using a small hydrogen generator. Heck, you can even buy it on Amazon if you want. The electrolysis process still requires electricity to power it, which means you'll lose some energy along the way due to inefficiencies in the process. But just as a wall charger does not transfer 100% of the electricity flowing through it to the battery, there is always transfer inefficiency
energy. And like the battery electric bike wall charger, the Hydroride electrolysis machine can be solar powered, meaning you're effectively using free solar energy to produce fuel. It is literally a “just add water” process to create your own fuel. When you get on the bike, the emissions are just as zero as on a battery-powered bike. Or almost zero emissions, except for the occasional drop of clean water produced by the hydrogen fuel cell.

Who needs it?

It's true, the company offers a home hydrogen generator, which means you can very well use such a hydrogen bike as your daily transport. But as I learned at the booth, they are more focused on B2B than B2C, and their main target is bike and scooter sharing companies, not individual consumers like you and me. And this, in my opinion, makes more sense. Yes, I agree that hydrogen has unique advantages that batteries do not. But battery-powered e-bikes are so entrenched in the industry that I don't see any major changes happening anytime soon. But for ride-sharing companies, these batteries are one of the biggest headaches in their industry. The biggest source of emissions for most scooter and bike sharing services are the diesel vans that have to be driven around to replace the batteries in these devices. So, if you could install larger hydrogen tanks on these bikes to increase the range (small tanks already give scooters a range of 100 km), or you could use local hydrogen generators to replace tanks on site, it could have a big impact on the ecological footprint of use. It also eliminates the problem of charging hundreds of batteries in a warehouse and the associated fire problems associated with those hundreds of batteries.

To be fair, a quick look at the periodic table reminds me that hydrogen isn't the most inert of gases either. But we've come a long way since the days of the Hindenburg and are doing a pretty good job of safely controlling the storage and transport of hydrogen, especially in small packages the size of a water bottle.

What's my verdict?

To be honest, I used to think that hydrogen was no longer needed for electric bikes. And I'm still not very optimistic about their increasing market share. But now I at least see that it has real potential for certain niches. Carpooling and other fleet uses seem to be the best use case as I don't see it becoming a popular option for everyday consumers yet. I can definitely see the benefits of hydrogen for a pizzeria with a fleet of electric delivery bikes that doesn't want to deal with a table full of charging batteries, or for a scooter sharing company that doesn't want the logistical nightmare of hundreds and hundreds or thousands of volatile batteries in their warehouse. But let's just say that for now I don't think I'll be riding a hydrogen bike anytime soon.

PS – As part of the development of the topic, it would probably be nice to switch bicycles to local gaseous fuel, which goes waste into the atmosphere.

In an extreme case, hydrogen could be made from the same gas.