Alternative Power

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded a contract to Millennium Cell (News - Alert) Inc. to extend the capabilities and performance of its Hydrogen on Demand-based fuel cartridges for current and future soldier power systems.

 

AFRL wants to enable the flexibility for field-hydration of cartridges. This will allow the war fighter to activate the fuel by adding field-quality water at the point-of-use on missions.

 

Projected to enable effective energy densities of over 850 Wh/kg for the fuel cell system, the new dry cartridge is five times better than the BA-5590 battery in use today. The new prototype fuel cartridge is expected to be complete early next year.

 

In addition to a straightforward user interface the cartridge will contain a companion water filling device for mixing the on-board dry fuel blend with water in the field. The cartridge will be able to accommodate even small quantities of water and remain operational.

 

Under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award, work was done for AFRL in 2006, which was focused on studying the operational characteristics of Millennium Cell’s Hydrogen on Demand technology utilizing field waters of varying qualities. This program will reportedly leverage that work the results of which show that it is possible to run Hydrogen on Demand cartridges with little or no filtration in battlefield scenarios.

 

“The Air Force is pleased to continue our work with Millennium Cell’s technology to enable multiple mode-of-use fuel cartridge flexibility,” said Michael Rottmayer, AFRL program manager in a press release.

 

“This technology shows great promise by offering multiple options for fuel cell field operability while reducing the weight burden for the warfighter in the field,” he added.

 

Early next year the system will be delivered at that time to AFRL with a Protonex Technology Corporation ProCore 50 fuel cell system (formerly known as the “P2”). This cartridge technology can also be integrated into small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or other military applications where unlimited shelf life, high energy density, and flexibility of use are critical.

 

Adam P. Briggs, Millennium Cell’s president s pleased to have the opportunity to develop a new easy-to-use cartridge design that will result in infinite shelf life and lower carrying weight for the Protonex ProCore 50 fuel cell system.

 

“We are encouraged by the military’s continued investment in future generations of products using our Hydrogen on Demand technology,” he concluded.

 

Millennium Cell develops hydrogen battery technology used to power portable applications.

 

 

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