Fuel Cell Power For UAVs

Flight time has not kept pace with technological advances due to the limitations of traditional battery technology. For commercial use, drones need to offer better flight times and range. A longer flight time coupled with a quick refuel opens up a wide range of new commercial possibilities, including UAVs for inspection of offshore platforms, search and rescue, high quality aerial photography, precision agriculture, parcel delivery and much more.

Intelligent Energy provides a unique solution to extend flight times to drones presently constrained by the limitations of batteries. Flight durations of over three times that provided by batteries have been achieved and fuel cells provide a natural solution for manufacturers moving to larger drones and heavier payloads.

Intelligent Energy’s air cooled fuel cell systems run on hydrogen and ambient air to produce clean DC power in a simple, cost-effective, robust and lightweight package. They have a higher energy to mass ratio than battery based systems and can be refuelled in a few minutes.

See our video (below) to watch the 650W Fuel Cell Power Module in action.