Many a high-tech company is experimenting with transporting parcels by drone. One problem, however, is battery life: many batteries in drones last only dozens of minutes. To keep drones in the air longer, the firm Intelligent Energy has developed a fuel cell that extends flight time. Flying on hydrogen makes the flight time much longer. So good news for logistics companies that want to use drones to deliver parcels.
Its new lightweight fuel cell, which is combined with a battery, allows the drones to stay in the air for up to more than 2 hours. That is considerably longer than the average flight time of around 20 minutes that was previously the standard. Julian Hughes of Intelligent Energy reveals that he sees a lot of value in better drones. "Drones are one of the most interesting new technologies. But even with good batteries, capacities are currently limited. For commercial purposes, the flight time and distance they can fly need to improve."
Charging time
Using hydrogen also eliminates the need to spend hours charging the drones. This allows efficient use of the drones, allowing more packages to be sent, for example.
Prototype
The company has now built a prototype that was shown at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. When the first companies will be able to use the hydrogen drones has not yet been announced.
Editorial LogistiekProfs
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