“Drones
are one of the most exciting new technologies. [But] even with advanced
batteries their value is limited. For commercial use, they need to offer better
flight times and range. That will all become possible with the release of our range
extender platform. A longer flight time coupled with quick re-fuel opens a wide
range of new commercial possibilities for businesses”
Head of Intelligent
Energy's Consumer Electronics Division, Julian Hughes, commenting on the
developement of a Fuel Cell for Drones
Intelligent Energy, the British company that loves Hydrogen fuel cells, is showing some
love for Drones as well.
They've
developed a Hydrogen fuel Cell for small drones as reported in the article “Hydrogen
fuel cells promise to keep drones flying for hours”, published December 15,
2015 By Ben Popper, The Verge.
Intelligent Energy has been testing their PEM Fuel cell technology for the past fourteen
(14) months using modified DJI Drones.
Good to note that Intelligent Energy is the
same company that developed a hydrogen fuel cell that could potentially be used
in an Apple iPhone to give it days of battery life as reported in my blog article
entitled “Intelligent
Energy Hydrogen Fuel Cell for Apple - How Hydrogen can give Apple products
weeks of battery life by 2017”.
So
what have they cooked up for drones? And will this be coming out any time soon?
Intelligent Energy’s
Drone Hydrogen Fuel Cell – Why Drones getting PEM Fuel Cells before Apple
Intelligent Energy’s testing has involved using two different configurations; one involving
fuel cells only and another involving a fuel cell constantly re-charging a
conventional Li-Ion battery as noted in “Fuel
cell keeps drones in flight for hours, not minutes”, published Martyn
Williams, PCWorld.
The
result has been flight times as long as 2 hours, a significant improvement on
the 20 to 40 minutes, typical of most drones. Drones that can stay aloft using
their Hydrogen fuel cell tech will soon be sporting these getting smaller and
smaller fuel cells, hastening the rapid pace of developement of drones.
This
last configuration makes more sense, as Fuel cells by themselves cannot respond
to sudden demands in power, such as sudden lift or battling high winds. But it
can be built to support an existing Li-Ion Battery system as they can recharge
much faster than conventional Li-Ion Batteries as noted in “Fuel Cells Could Let
Drones Fly for Several Hours”, published December 15 2015 by Stephanie
Mlot, PC News.
So
if Intelligent Energy makes this commercially available it could come as a
package that you could augment to your existing battery setup your drone.
This
is the case in most PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) Vehicles, which are really
hybrids of Hydrogen Fuel cells as a power source and Li-Ion batteries as noted
in my blog
article entitled “PEM
Fuel Cell Technology gets Japanese Government support - Hydrogen Gas Stations
Coming in First World and Developing World Countries”.
So
will Hydrogen fuel cells be coming to make Drones last longer before Apple adds
them to their Apple iPhone and Macbook Pros as predicted in my blog article
entitled “Apple
files patent for Hydrogen Fuel cell – Why Portable Hydrogen Fuel Cells needed
to cut the Analog Power Cord”?
This
might just be the case, as Apple has no interest in Developing Drones....at
least not yet!
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