Eco-Runner Team Delft ’21/’22

The Team

Eco-Runner Team Delft is a multidisciplinary student team from the Delft University of Technology consisting of 23 students. Together we aim to promote a sustainable future by building the world’s most efficient hydrogen-powered city car. Each year, we participate in the Urban Concept class of the Shell Eco-marathon, an international competition which gives us the opportunity to build and race an efficient hydrogen-powered car that is close to a modern city car in appearance. By emphasizing efficiency and the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier, Eco-Runner Team Delft tries to inspire and motivate people and businesses to contribute to a more sustainable future.

As an alternative to the canceled Shell Eco-Marathon 2021 due to COVID-19, the Eco-Runner XI competed in a self organised competition by our team in collaboration with other student teams from the Netherlands: The Hydrogen Efficiency Challenge. We can proudly say that we won this competition with an efficiency of 3,396 km/kg H2. Additionally, our Eco-Runner XI hydrogen car also set a World Record by covering 1,196 kilometers in one go with a limited amount of only 350 grams of fuel!

The Electronic Systems

The electronic systems within the car, of which the Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are a big part, play a huge role in making all this possible. Eurocircuits has been a long-term partner helping us to produce our own custom PCBs that are used throughout the car. Four PCBs are used for the lights of the car, two in the front and two in the rear. A PCB with a built-in display is mounted on the steering wheel. This PCB gets input from the driver and updates the driver with relevant data on the screen. In the back, there is a large PCB where all sensor data comes in and from where the drivetrain is controlled.

Testing

The design of the PCBs requires many iterations to ultimately come to a suitable design that is reliable and enables efficient energy consumption. This comes with a lot of testing and experimenting and asks for precise planning to be done in time. With the support of Eurocircuits we can build these projects and make advancements in the technology with little to no constraints.

We have set ambitious goals for ourselves this year. It is nice to see the car coming together right now and come up with creative solutions for the challenges that arise. We thank Eurocircuits for their contribution and look forward to presenting the project in more detail later in the year.