Fuel cells in unmanned aircraft

This project investigates the implementation of a fuel cell into a small unmanned aerial vehicle. Small model aircraft are used around the world by hobbyists for pleasure and creating home videos. Currently these aircraft are a excellent solution for many commercial applications; land surveying, search and rescue, police surveillance, border control and recently in the news for the Army. However, these aircraft can only fly for a fraction of an hour, and then require a length battery recharge, or for many spare batteries to be carried. A fuel cell offers a far greater endurance than any battery whilst still maintaining low weight. It is anticipated that a fuel cell for the aircraft in this project will last for six to ten hours, and is very quick and easy to refuel, and requires no recharging at all

Testing microtubular SOFCs in unmanned air vehicles (UAVs)

Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) powered by microtubular SOFCs (mSOFCs) are described for comparison with polymer fuel cells (PEFCs). Using propane as fuel, 7mm diameter mSOFCs have been tested in a 2m wingspan aircraft with a total weight of 6kg. The start-up time was 12 minutes to deliver 250W in a fuel cell/battery hybrid drive system. Tubes were YSZ cermet anode supported, with 10 µm YSZ electrolyte, 6µm SDC interlayer coated with 50µm LSCF cathode. Silver wires were used as interconnects. Pure propane fuel gas was mixed with air in a CPOX reactor using catalytic fuel processing mesh. A polymeric fuel inlet manifold gave cold sealing at the tube inlet ends which projected out of the hot box. Cathode air was provided in counterflow, preheated over an anode off-gas catalyst. The fuel utilization was 55%, output power of 250W. The fuel cell was incorporated in a hybrid electrical system with lithium polymer battery and inserted in a Skywalker X8 UAV with 500g of propane in an aluminum tank

Fuel cell hybrid unmanned aerial vehicle

Fuel cell hybrid unmanned aerial vehicl

Powerpath controller for a fuel cell and battery

Powerpath controller for a fuel cell and batter

LU-X8SH UAS Testing

A hydrogen fuel cell is a device that converts hydrogen gas & air into electricity and water. Although these devices are much lower power density than batteries, they can pump out that power for many hours, depending on the amount of fuel you are storing. At Loughborough University, UK, we are working on a fuel cell and LiPo hybrid, to give you the oompf for take off (and go-arounds!) and the long endurance for cruise and loiter. The base aircraft is the Skywalker X8, modified to carry considerably more weight than it is designed for (currently 4.5kg all up, and pushing towards 6kg with more testing). This video briefly explains the platform setup, shows a video using ArduPilot's autonomous take-off, and concludes with a short 4.5kg flight. In the coming weeks look forward to videos of the payload approaching 6kg, and the fuel cell being connected properly and providing some of the power