Flow Cell Power – 1,000 km in 8:21 Hours

The delegation sits around a table set for dinner and follows with interest the presentations delivered by Nunzio La Vecchia, the Chief Technology Officer of nanoFlowcell Holdings, as he explains the significance of his latest research progress.

Last October, nanoFlowcell Holdings announced a breakthrough in flow cell research – they had finally succeeded in achieving variable control of flow cells. Initial tests in the QUANTiNO demonstrated the unrestricted dynamism and stability of the drive system even without supercapacitors.

Dispensing with the supercaps, which were previously used as buffer storage to regulate the energy flow in mobile applications, delivers an enormous reduction in weight and cost in the design of electrified drive systems. Put simply, it means that electric cars can cost less in future than present-day vehicles with internal combustion engines – and far less than current electric cars.

The initial scepticism of the “guest drivers” switched to delight after the first 600 kilometres. After 800 kilometres, they were fully convinced that this kind of performance would not be achievable with the technology currently used in electric car design. Once they were at the wheel, they were determined to keep driving the flow cell sports car until the company’s promise was fulfilled and the QUANTiNO had reached the target distance of 1,000 kilometres – after a full eight hours and 21 minutes. On a test track, those 1,000 kilometres would have been covered in no time, but on Swiss motorways there’s a strict speed limit of 120 km/h.

The long night may be clearly etched in the faces, but at the same time, the adrenaline of the sustained euphoria keeps everyone wide awake. After all, we have all just witnessed a silent world record. The engineers know that a distance like that is unattainable for conventional electric vehicles – not at that speed, not in that time – simply not technically possible right now.

Cost-efficient range, a powerful, environmentally friendly drive without harmful emissions plus fast and straightforward refuelling with energy carriers that are safe and sustainable to produce – those are the political demands for the individual mobility of the future, and with which industry continues to struggle.

With the QUANTiNO, nanoFlowcell Holdings was once again able to prove the technical performance potential of its flow cell technology. It presented the guest engineers with the opportunity to consider important questions relating to the feasibility of this drive technology. La Vecchia and his team know that the question of the hen and the egg cannot be answered on paper: What comes first, the fuelling infrastructure for the bi-ION electrolyte solution or the electric vehicle with nanoFlowcell drive?

However, changing the mindset of those in positions of responsibility is a slow process. The pressure to change things to benefit the environment and society as a whole is pervasive, but not yet painful enough for the main players to have real, serious consequences.

At nanoFlowcell Holdings, we are not discouraged by this, but see it instead as an additional challenge. The euphoria of the night is intoxicating. Once the manufacturer delegation has left, the chief engineer drives a lap of honour until the 190 litres in the tank are fully used up.

The QUANTiNO 48VOLT with 2 x 95 litres of bi-ION covered no less than 1,401 kilometres – a distance achievable right now only with a flow cell. The last few kilometres to the nanoFlowcell Holdings R&D centre are covered on the back of a trailer. Work is already ongoing on a new generation of QUANT fuel cell drives, which will soon provide an insight into the electric mobility of the near, very near, future.