Authors:

Thomas B Wooldridge

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About Paper:

Data collection in remote areas of ocean airspace has been significantly enabled by advances in drone technology, and improvement of flight times for modern-day battery-powered drones can greatly benefit flight campaigns. Current lithium-ion batteries used in drones have low energy densities (around 0.25 kWh/kg corresponding to a flight time of one hour or less), when compared with hydrogen fuel cells, which have an energy density of around 40 kWh/kg and average flight times of 5-10 hours. The dramatically higher energy density makes hydrogen-based solutions attractive for drone operations, but hydrogen-refueling places other constraints on drone operations. The objective of this research is to provide a proof-of concept for a completely autonomous hydrogen fuel cell powered drone docking and refueling station in remote parts of the ocean. The docking station will consist of a water pump which pumps sea water into a reverse osmosis water filter that then leads into an electrolysis stack that produces clean hydrogen. Next, the hydrogen will enter a high-volume low-pressure tank that stores the hydrogen in preparation to be boosted to higher pressures. After the hydrogen has been compressed, it will be transferred to a low-volume high-pressure storage tank where it will remain until the drone docks for refueling. Before assembling into a single unit, preliminary experiments are conducted to check the performance and quality of each component, particularly in terms of power requirements, component size and efficiency, and other important design parameters for remote operations. The preliminary experiments are used to calculate the actual working pressure and hydrogen flow rates, as well as to test any potential problems that might arise. Performance metrics, such as hydrogen production per cycle, energy efficiency, and noise are quantified based on the integration of the components. This demonstration work will estimate values for the metrics and areas of improvement for the next design iteration. The overall goal of the project is to transfer the proof-of-concept design to an actual autonomous environment. Keywords: Clean Hydrogen; Docking Station; Ocean Data Collection; Fuel Cell Drone; Forever Flying Drone

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

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Co-authors:

Thomas B Wooldridge