A Zetech University lecturer built an electric motorbike that runs on batteries from discarded computers.
Prof Geoffrey Gitau is the genius behind this discovery, which has people talking about how outdated and discarded batteries may be utilized to power a motor bicycle.
“It is a retrofitted electric motorcycle powered by four battery packs from old laptop cells and a hub motor,” Professor Gitau said.
The motorbike, dubbed ‘Eco-Mobilus,’ takes two and a half hours to be fully charged and saves him 80% of fuel costs on a daily basis.
“When fully charged, it can go for 120km and does not produce sound or cause carbon dioxide emissions,” he added.
He came up with the innovation after realising that the price of fuel was skyrocketing since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I bought an abandoned motorcycle chassis, removed the petrol engine, and replaced it with a motor, and discarded laptop battery cells. I was motivated by the large amounts of e-waste that could be recycled and the huge potential for expansion and scalability in Kenya,” Prof Gitau said.
However, he says he faces a major challenge since the available motorbike frames lack a standard form, which hinders his efforts to modify them to become e-mobile friendly.
