Cenex has jumped on board to become the official partner of this year’s ‘green fuels’ Class 1 A category in Formula Student (FS) 09.

The UK's first Centre of Excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies is backing Class 1 A (A referring to alternative) in FS09, Europe’s biggest student motorsport event. FS09 will take place between 16-19 July at the world-famous Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire and will challenge university students from Delhi to Dublin to design, build and compete in a single-seater racing car from scratch – no mean feat!

Run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) FS is delighted to have the support of Cenex and energy company E.ON’s, this year. Robert Evans, CEO of Cenex said today: “Cenex is delighted to be supporting FS09’s ‘green fuels’ category.  The competition is a great way to  highlight the increasingly important role  that alternative fuels, such as biofuels and hydrogen, will play in helping the UK’s transportation sector move toward a lower carbon future. FS is a fantastic competition that encourages students on a global scale to learn about science and engineering and compete at a level that reaches right up to Formula 1.”

The event is likely to see up to 3,000 students take part in a series of design and action ‘dynamic’ events. This year there are seven teams in Class 1A. 
Racing Green, a team from Imperial College, London, has taken the route of using a hydrogen fuel cell to power its entry into Class 1A, as well as lithium polymer battery packs and a 4kW fuel cell as a range extender. Each racing car wheel is linked to a 25kW motor, giving the vehicle an advantage of 4-wheel drive. A lot of control is needed to put the electricity in the correct place, so the teams used a Compact Rio, a mechanism used in motorsport to be vibration resistant which controls the batteries. The car also has regenerative braking capability built in, which can generate electricity. Ian Lawrence, Team Leader said: “We actually had to design the battery pack ourselves because nothing like it exists in the world.

To incorporate technology that has not been used yet was a challenge in itself and perhaps we underestimated the difficulties that the design process would involve. It is an excellent learning curve which only increases year upon year of entering Formula Student.”
 
Formula Student Class 1 A Entries
University - Fuel
Oxford Brookes - Hybrid – petrol/electric
Hertfordshire University -  Electric
Imperial College London -  Hydrogen Fuel-Cell
Central Lancashire - E-85 Bio-Ethanol
ETH Zurich, Switzerland -  Electric
University of Madrid - Hybrid
State Technical University – MADI, Moscow - Hybrid