Little Green Beads to Power Your UAV or Ultralight

Dean Sigler Electric Aircraft Components, Hydrogen Fuel, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

January 19 marked the first flight by a Raptor UAS drone using pelletized hydrogen to power a fuel cell that generates electricity and makes the propeller turn. Energy Pellets Cella Energy, a Scottish-based enterprise, is now producing small quantities of their little green beads (just in time for Mardi Gras), filled with solid-state hydrogen.   Claimed to have “two or three times” the energy per weight of the best of lithium-ion batteries, Cella’s pellets are designed to enable low-pressure transportation of hydrogen in a form that allows fueling to take place with a bit of magic sleight of hand.  Looking like miniature green dumplings, Cella’s mix of plastic and encapsulated hydrogen has the advantage of using existing infrastructure, “with minimal alterations.”  Think of the pellets as a dumpling with a hydrogen filling which can be repeatedly extracted and refilled.  How many refillings is not stated at this time. Recycled Energy The pellets release their hydrogen into a fuel cell when they are …

Solid State H2 Storage on Mini-UAV

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

A handful of little white pellets holds enough hydrogen to fill a good-sized balloon.  At least, that’s the claim of executives at Cella Energy, a spinoff of Oxford University researchers.  The blog has covered their work twice, once with their claim that their hydrogen pellets could replace gasoline for the equivalent of $1.50 a gallon, and once for showing a method for pumping fresh pellets into a fuel tank after extracting the spent pellets. Their latest project, partnering with L2 Aerospace, converts a small unpiloted aerial vehicle (UAV) to run on hydrogen powering a fuel cell. The partners have been flying the UAV since January, 2014 and are now showing it at different expos in America and Europe.  The power supply, according to the partners, is quiet, emission-free, lightweight, and can be shaped to fit any application.  In the current instance, the “tank” has a wing shape.  The pellets have a shelf life of years. The prototype Cella Energy cartridge …

Cella Packages Hydrogen in Usable Ways

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Cella Energy, a UK-based energy company, announced big plans for hydrogen storage in early 2011, and is now beginning to deliver on its earlier promise. Hydrogen, as desirable as it is for use in transportation, presents many hurdles in its use.  Creating an infrastructure for its distribution has been a major impediment so far, but Cella hopes to overcome that with its nanotechnology pellets that can be distributed, transported and used much like fossil-fuel liquids. Cella highlights the fact that the hydrogen is stored in low-pressure form at ambient temperatures and can be handled safely in the open air (something that can’t be said about gasoline, for instance).  It benefits customers by being able to use existing distribution networks and outlets.  Imagine a gas station or airport refueling truck that dispenses hydrogen in pellet form as well as the normal liquid fuels. The company’s “elevator pitch” promotes the “three minute, 300 mile rule.”  We’re used to pulling into a gas …

$1.50 a Gallon, Carbon-Free, and Maybe?

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Gizmag readers responded pretty much equally with hope and skepticism to today’s story on Cella Energy’s announcement of their hydrogen-based, emissions-free fuel that would power your car for $1.50 a gallon.  One asked if it were April 1 yet.  Others held out more charitable views of the announcement, and perhaps deservedly so. Cella’s diagram compares bulky high-pressure storage with room-temperature, ambient-pressure storage solution Cella is partially a spinoff of Oxford University’s ISIS programs, named for the Egyptian goddess of magic and life and overflowing with demonstrated successes.  We’ve reported on their Yokeless And Segmented Armature (YASA™) topology motor, a 34-centimeter (13.4 inches) diameter, 7-centimeter (2.76 inches) thick, 11 kilogram (23.2 pound) marvel that can produce a peak 100 kilowatts and 700 Nm (516 foot-pounds) of peak torque.  Cella’s web site claims several important factors that would lead to success, including: “Hydrogen fuels for vehicle you can pump like regular gasoline at room temperature and pressure, safer to use than gasoline or …