Development of Improved Dual-Purpose Fitness Bike for Electricity Generation

Abstract

This research work is on development of dual purpose fitness bike for electricity. It is aimed at improving electricity generated during cycling exercise and reducing the dependence on fossil fuels and its attendant emissions of green house gases especially carbon dioxide, this can eventually lead to reduction in the risk of global warming. In recent times, attempts have been made to harvest energy generated from human powered fitness bicycles and convert it to electricity. The existing fitness bicycle designs were unable to generate feasible electricity that can compensate for the considered financial investment. Therefore, the existing fitness bicycle designs were analyzed and improvements needed in the area of energy conversion were noted and carried out. With this improved dual-purpose fitness bike, the electrical power output of an average adult at an average speed of 60 rpm of cycling is about 3, 500 watts in one hour, as against 150W – 250W reported in the literature. This is an equivalent of 1.3 MW of electricity in one year which equals about 307,442 litres of carbon dioxide emission cut back in one year. This is considered a substantial improvement of electricity generation over the electricity generated by retrofitted fitness bicycles design already in existence.

Keywords: Electricity generation; Fitness bicycle; Fossil fuels; Global warming; Green house gases.