Hydrone 1800: MMC announces first hydrogen drone http://en.ruvsa.com/news/development/HyDrone 1800: MMC announces first Hydrogen Drone/
US Navy Research Lab webinar: Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Small Unmanned Airvehicles
May 26, 2016 | 1–2 p.m. EDT
The Energy Department's Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO), in collaboration with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), will present a unique, live webinar titled "Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Small Unmanned Airvehicles" on Thursday, May 26, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). NRL has contributed to fundamental and applied fuel cell technology research for well over a decade and has collaborated with the FCTO through inter-agency working groups. In the spirit of this collaboration, the FCTO is presenting this webinar that highlights NRL’s incorporation of fuel cells into their small unmanned airvehicles (UAVs), and the resulting fuel and energy saving benefits of this technology.
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are being developed worldwide as clean, efficient energy conversion devices to replace combustion engines. These polymer-based fuel cells are efficient because the fuel (hydrogen) and oxidizer (oxygen in air) react by electrochemical catalysis, rather than by combustion. The NRL developed the Ion Tiger, a practical, 35-pound vehicle, to demonstrate the viability of hydrogen fuel cell propulsion for small UAVs. Using a 1.1-kg 550-Watt fuel cell, NRL flew for 26 hours using compressed hydrogen in November 2009 and 48 hours in April 2013 using liquid hydrogen. Success of this new energy efficient system is due to advances in materials, electronics, thermal management, and optics, integrated into an aerodynamically efficient package. The resulting fuel-cell–powered UAVs are relatively small (35 to 100 pounds) but they are quiet and efficient, allowing them to do “big airplane” missions. The full system results in significant fuel and energy savings demonstrating how a systems approach can be critical to the development of emerging green technologies
