Tritonium
UCSD's 3rd car competed at the 2014 AIChE Western Regional Conference at UC Davis. Our team placed 6th over all.
Propulsion Mechanism: PEM Fuel Cell
A PEM fuel cell converts the energy from the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to electricity to power the motor. Hydrogen produced from running water through an electrolyzer . The hydrogen is then put into syringes and is slowly pushed through the PEM fuel cell.
Stopping Mechanism: Pressure Syringe
The pressure syringe is a stopping mechanism that used the reaction to create gas that would fill a syringe until the plunger hit a switch at the top of a tower. Once the switch was hit, the circuit to the motor would be broken. This mechanism was tested by using different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and recording the amount of time it took for the plunger to hit the switch.
