Stralis Aircraft partners with Advent Technologies to power hydrogen-electric flight with breakthrough lightweight fuel cell system
Emission-free aircraft developer Stralis Aircraft has teamed up with Advent Technologies to advance the development of their Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft.
The Australia-based firm dedicated to producing world-leading high-performance, low-operating cost, hydrogen-electric propulsion systems and aircraft at scale is using Advent’s “lightweight” proprietary membrane electrode assembly technology in the development of their groundbreaking fuel cell system.
Image ©Stralis Aircraft
Stuart Johnstone, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Stralis, said: “We are proud to be working with Advent in the USA to develop our fuel cell system for aircraft.
“Thanks to this tech, our system is significantly lighter than existing alternatives, which is what is needed for aircraft. We enable aircraft to fly more than ten times further than battery-electric solutions at a lower cost than fossil-fuel-powered planes. We are already testing our hydrogen-electric propulsion system on the ground and plan to achieve first flight of our six-seat technology demonstrator aircraft later this year.”
Emory De Castro, Chief Technology Officer at Advent, added: “We continue to work closely with the team at Stralis on their next generation high temperature (HT-PEM) fuel cells for their hydrogen electric propulsion system.
“Advent’s HT-PEM membrane electrode assembly is an integral part of the fuel cell, and our technology enables the engines to be efficiently cooled with smaller radiators that reduces weight and drag on the aircraft.”
Hydrogen electric propulsion systems have fewer moving parts and operate at lower temperatures compared to existing aircraft engines, which is predicted to reduce engine maintenance costs by between 40-60%. These systems can replace batteries on existing electric aircraft and eVTOL, retrofit into piston or turboprop aircraft, incorporated into clean sheet designs or even as auxiliary power units (APUs) onboard larger aircraft.
Gary Herman the CEO of Advent said: “Our membrane technology is unsurpassed and offers a versatile clean energy solution across multiple industries including aviation, marine, automotive, and defence.”
For more information, visit www.advent.energy and www.stralis.aero.