Small High Endurance Aircraft Technology (sHEAT) - Application of Solid-State Hydrogen Storage to Extend Flight Time of sUAS

Hare, Dalton; Asgedom, Nabra G.; Jordan, Jr., Mitchell Scott; Steedley, Jeffrey A.

doi:10.2172/2202373

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Small High Endurance Aircraft Technology (sHEAT) - Application of Solid-State Hydrogen Storage to Extend Flight Time of sUAS

Hare, Dalton·Asgedom, Nabra G.·Jordan, Jr., Mitchell Scott·Steedley, Jeffrey A.

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Abstract

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) proposed a study to The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) to investigate the possibility of extending the flight time of small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) using aluminum hydride (AlH 3 or alane) to power a hydrogen fuel cell. Alane is a solid-state hydrogen storage material with greater volumetric energy density than compressed hydrogen and much greater energy density than lithium batteries. UAVs typically use lithium-polymer and lithium-ion batteries for flight, but lithium batteries have not provided a substantial increase in flight time or range since their wide acceptance in the unmanned aircraft market. Several DHS agencies would benefit greatly from extended flight times and ranges for UAS platforms, so experimenting with new types of power sources could provide significant improvement in these important areas of research for DHS S&T.

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Hare, Dalton, Asgedom, Nabra G., Jordan, Jr., Mitchell Scott, Steedley, Jeffrey A.. 2023-08-22. Small High Endurance Aircraft Technology (sHEAT) - Application of Solid-State Hydrogen Storage to Extend Flight Time of sUAS. https://doi.org/10.2172/2202373

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