The Singapore-based company, H3 Dynamics, will begin integrating its off-the-shelf hydrogen-electric systems to Carbonix’, Australia’s leading manufacturer and provider of UAV, existing H2 VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) UAS fleet.

Carbonix’ key end-user markets such as mining and logistics, where passenger aircraft and helicopters, as well as battery or combustion engine drones are already in use – now could be converted to using locally-produced hydrogen.

H3’s hydrogen nacelle carries 5kg of cargo and can travel up to 900km on liquid hydrogen fuel and 350km on compressed hydrogen, meaning zero emission hydrogen aviation.

The companies have said, when compared to batteries, hydrogen-electric systems will increase flight durations by several orders of magnitude in its beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) commercial drone operations.

The hydrogen-electric nacelle technology involves multiple integrated powertrains incorporating batteries, fuel cells, hydrogen storage, and smaller electric motors across the wings, replacing a single centralised hydrogen fuel cell system.

Read more: ‘World’s first’ hydrogen aircraft propulsor nacelle set to power long-haul flights

Taras Wankewycz, CEO and Co-Founder at H3 Dynamics, said, “H3 Dynamics’ plan is to increase the size of hydrogen air frames every year until we are able to fly passenger-scale aircraft.”

Philip Van der Burg, CEO of Carbonix, added, “Creating intelligent long range aerial systems enabling reliable and effective access to critical remote data while respecting the environment is key to us. We will work with H3 Dynamics to complete the hydrogen value chain for several rapidly growing UAV segments, and to do it much more quickly – right here in Australia.”

The collaboration between H3 Dynamics and Carbonix follows on from the announcement that the Australian Government had awarded a $1.3m grant to develop ‘Australia’s first’ hydrogen-powered drone.

Read more: Plans for ‘Australia’s first’ hydrogen-powered drone revealed under new project