Compressed hydrogen storage in contemporary fuel cell propulsion systems of small drones

Drones called also Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are one of the most growing up aircraft production sectors. Contemporary manufactured small drones use mostly electric engines for their drive. Application of such propulsion system needs elaborating of efficient and as light as possible energy sources for electric engines. There are used at present essentially two methods of energy storing suitable for these purposes i.e. batteries and production of electric energy on-board with use of Fuel Cells (FC). The second method requiring the hydrogen fuel to be supplied to FC is still in experimental phase however, results of researches are very promising. The review of systems of compressed hydrogen storage and on-board production has been presented in article. There have been presented several examples of experimental and commercial hydrogen feeding systems and essential technical problems with hydrogen storing for the needs of small drones.