H24LEO - Hydrogen for Long Endurance Oceanwatch

Important results from the project

H24LEO has demonstrated the capability of hydrogen fuel cells as an alternative fuel source to achieve long-endurance flight with an unmanned aerial vehicle. This aims to achieve a significantly reduced environmental impact in relation to other aviation activities at the Swedish Maritime Administration. After extensive theoretical analysis, a fuel cell system was chosen that has been modified and integrated. In parallel, the optimization of the hydrogen storage has been completed. In addition, the project has created a hybrid solution that enables using other energy sources.

Expected long term effects

The research infrastructure for hydrogen at Lund University has been inaugurated and contributes to the practical hydrogen competence at the Department of Energy Sciences. Tests have been carried out and will also occur after H24LEO in 2023 and 2024 with all partners involved. One of the partners will manufacture new prototypes of subsystems and test them onboard an unmanned aerial vehicle together with the UAS Lab at the Lund University School of Aviation.

Approach and implementation

The arrangement has worked well as the division of responsibilities has been clear, and motivation has been high. A clear demarcation made it easier to focus in each work package. The project involved finding many answers, which were the basis for other decisive decisions in the project. This meant, among other things, that the project needed to design a separate subsystem to collect and manage the generated data. The project has verified that the idea has advantages both volumetrically and gravimetrically from an energy density perspective and is user-friendly and scalable.