Fuel cell power the future for unmanned aircraft
The field of aviation embraces fuel cell technology -- with further application for the automotive industryMany a pundit looks on the hydrogen fuel cell as the future of automotive power. And that's not just on the road but in the air as well.
At the annual conference of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in Washington DC in August, a company called BlueBird Aero Systems unveiled 'Boomerang', described in the conference blurb as "the world's first long endurance, commercial hydrogen fuel cell powered Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)".
Weighing just 9 kg all up, Boomerang is propelled by an electric motor drawing power from a 2 kg 'Aeropak' hydrogen fuel cell, developed by Singapore-based Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies.
Horizon calls the power pack it has developed for Boomerang "the world's lightest and most compact electrical energy storage system". BlueBird claims its 900Wh is enough to keep the craft airborne for over nine hours with minimal 'acoustic signature' -- engineering talk for 'it's very quiet'.
Unmanned aircraft -- better known as drones -- have found increasing popularity for all manner of military, security and civilian uses. A long-flight mini UAS such as Boomerang has considerable (self-evident) potential for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions in border security, infrastructure surveillance, guard duty on critical assets and environmental monitoring. BlueBird fuel cell-powered drones are already operating in the Middle East.
Boomerang hails from three years' work to integrate the bodywork and the fuel-cell system for the purposes of reducing weight, upgrading fuel-cell cooling and building in hybridisation potential for system power redundancy.
Horizon claims its proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells deliver the world's highest energy density for cells of their kind -- "orders of magnitude beyond what is possible today with the best lithium batteries".
Fuel cells overcome the problems that have to date hindered efforts to run drones on battery power. Along with reduced noise and increased range, Horizon claims it has the capacity to accommodate not just avionics but other on-board powered devices such as optical sensors, infrared cameras and laser designators.
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