Hydrogen fuel cells for unmanned undersea vehicle propulsion

The high efficiency of fuel cells combined with the high energy of hydrogen can be used to create energy systems for long endurance vehicles. As the automotive sector has developed fuel cells for this purpose, the same technology might enable long endurance unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs). This paper describes fuel cell technologies for long endurance UUVs and issues related to integrating hydrogen fuel cells into large UUVs. We also describe an Office of Naval Research program with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division, University of Hawaii, and General Motors (GM) to integrate an automotive fuel cell from GM into a UUV. Hydrogen and oxygen storage technologies are also discussed.