How a student racing club in Kerala is developing a hydrogen-fuelled buggy

Herakles Racing hydrogen-fuelled all-terrain car
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Among the 22 faculty groups taking part in the third and last section of the SAEIndia HBaja 2025 competitors was a group of rookies in the hydrogen or CNG-fuelled all-terrain car (ATV) class, Herakles Racing, from the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) in Thiruvananthapuram. Around 190 groups registered for the seventeenth version of this prestigious contest, to construct ATVs for recreation which might operate in real-world circumstances. But many didn’t qualify in the primary two phases held on-line. From January 9 to 12, buggies battled it out with power, manoeuvrability, effectivity, endurance and extra on the National Automotive Test Tracks in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh.

Ultimately, on the ultimate day, to everybody’s shock, Herakles Racing got here second in total rating. They received the perfect debutant award and in addition bagged the primary rank in validation, effectivity, and digital dynamics, second in gross sales and acceleration and third in endurance, sled pulling (pulling a tractor with the ATV), and value.

Team Herakles Racing at CET, Sreekaryam in Thiruvananthapuram
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Herakles Racing, the school’s official BAJA racing staff, was based by Safwan Abdul Samad, a mechanical engineering student, in 2017. “Safwan wanted to do something beyond the classrooms. So, with the help of a few of his friends, he started this club and even attended a few competitions,” says Gautham S Nair, supervisor of Herakles Racing.

Currently, there are round 45 members in the staff. “Among the members, some even get placement offers from mainstream manufacturers like Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp and so on,” says Gautham.

“We started working on hydrogen-combustion vehicles (which burn hydrogen for fuel) in 2024 with this competition in mind. It took us around a year to get from ideation to execution,” says Gautham.

Herakles Racing buggy on the SAEIndia HBaja 2025 competitors 
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The staff used supplies from their EBaja automobiles (electrical) to design the buggy. “It would normally cost ₹ 8 to 9 lakh if we were to buy all the components for an ATV. But, since we recycled a lot, we cut down the cost to ₹3 lakh,” says staff captain Adith Raj. This quantity was raised by the scholars.

The ATV at present makes use of 5% hydrogen and the remaining CNG, owing to the costly nature of producing hydrogen gas by way of electrolysis (splitting hydrogen and oxygen in water utilizing electrical energy). Also, there are not any hydrogen filling stations in Kerala. In truth, Herakles didn’t check their car with hydrogen till they reached the SAEIndia tracks. Instead, they used petrol as a result of bi-fuel nature of their engine.

Herakles Racing makes use of a hydrogen combustion engine, which runs like another inside combustion engine utilizing fossil fuels. “We will improve on this percentage of hydrogen in the coming years. We need a bulkier or reinforced engine for that,” says Gautham. “Currently, the engine material we use is aluminium or cast iron. Maybe if we can use composite material for the engine; it will be more suited for hydrogen fuel,” he provides.

“Many teams use aluminium parts for several components and that limits the weight of the vehicle to around 140 to 170 kilograms, helping them perform better. But since we are reusing material, our ATV weighs around 250 kilograms. We need to find lighter materials for components and better funding to ensure that proper research is carried out in optimising the buggy’s performance,” says Gautham.

“We are working on using a sustainable fuel source, which would help in the future. The only waste from hydrogen combustion is water,” says Rinin Krishna, vice-captain.

“While ATVs come in a different category compared to passenger vehicles, it has applications in defence, farming, search and rescue and so on,” says Rinin.