Protonex Technology has agreed a $1.62 million deal with the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for the advanced development of fuel cell systems.

The fuel cells will be used in unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs and the development work will look into increasing power output and improving the efficiency of the UAV fuel cell platform.

As a result, it is hoped that the hydrogen fuel cell system will be compatible with different fuels as well as being able to operate in silence.

Protonex Technology has also worked with the US Air Force and has conducted previous projects with the Navy.

Commercially, the firm has worked on making fuel cells that are suitable for the trucking industry Mass High Tech news reports.

We have had outstanding success in our previous collaborations with the NRL, and this new program to extend our work with UAVs validates those efforts," said Dr Paul Osenar, Chief Technology Officer at the firm.

Source:

Protonex Receives Additional $1.62M to Extend Capabilities of UAV Propulsion Systems, 23/04/08
http://www.shephard.co.uk/UVOnline/default.aspx?Action=-187126550&ID=6f35ac76-4119-4d97-a190-daab86acc899

Protonex wins Navy deal for UAV fuel cells 23/04/08
http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2008/04/21/daily25.html