Design of an integrated propane fuel reformer and fuel cell system for unmanned aerial system (UAS) applications

Recent fuel cell research has focused on systems for passenger vehicles, commercial buildings, and small handheld devices. These applications typically require power outputs that are either greater than 100 kW or less than 20 W, and a gap remains in developing viable fuel cell systems for applications requiring between 100 W and 100 kW. An integrated reformer fuel cell system has been developed for these medium power applications that utilizes a propane catalytic partial oxidation reformer coupled with a polybenzimidazole-based high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell. After investigation into the requirements of military unmanned aerial systems (UASs), a system was designed to produce a net power of 250 W with a total mass of 2.23 kg and potential for 200-hour lifetime. The proposed design offers advantages over current UAS propulsion technologies because it is both quiet and capable of long duration flights, and also has advantages over other fuel cell systems as it is fueled with commonly available propane instead of high purity hydrogen.