Hydrogen gas cells are steadily catching on in ground-based transportation, however might they quickly be a fixture of our airspace? That seems to be the aim for Virginia Seashore-based drone supply agency DroneUp. The Walmart accomplice, which powers the retailer’s largest-in-the-nation industrial drone supply community, just lately introduced its plans to check hydrogen gas cell expertise from Doosan Mobility Innovation (DMI), one of many first companies to commercialize hydrogen-powered drones. The DMI and DroneUp settlement was first initiated in October 2022.
DMI’s hydrogen gas cell expertise yields 3-to-1 vitality density traits when in comparison with lithium battery-powered drones. This new expertise tremendously will increase drone flight time to 2-5 hours, relying on a number of elements like payload weight and climate. Along with the elevated flight time, the brand new hydrogen expertise being examined additionally has environmental sustainability advantages.
“The expertise trade evolves extremely shortly and the drone trade evolves even sooner,” stated John Vernon, CTO of DroneUp. “It’s completely essential we discover new expertise like this and proceed testing and validating the way it will help us transfer ahead. This collaboration is actually fascinating as a result of it addresses two main facets of business drone companies, rising flight time and lowering carbon emissions. We’re actually excited to see the outcomes from this because it could possibly be a major game-changer for the trade.” Watch a video of a hydrogen cartridge being loaded right into a drone right here.
