UK basedfuel cell engineering company Intelligent Energy has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with its South Korean customer MetaVista Inc to commit to a long-term partnership and collaboration.

The companies recently announced a world-first endurance flight of a MetaVista UAV powered by an Intelligent Energy 650W Fuel Cell Power Module (FCPM) using liquid hydrogen. A record flight time of 10 hours and 50 minutes was achieved.

As part of the MOU the two companies will jointly work to officially recognise the longest fuel cell powered multi-rotor UAV flight time with the Guinness Book of World Records.

The test flight demonstrated that liquid hydrogen can increase UAV flight time further still when compared to compressed hydrogen – three times longer!

Lee Juby, Sales Director at Intelligent Energy, said: "MetaVista has developed an ultra-light weight liquid hydrogen storage tank to specifically work with Intelligent Energy's FCPM. We have worked well together over the past few months and I am delighted to formalise this working partnership with an MOU.

"Intelligent Energy's mission for some time now has been to disrupt the commercial UAV industry and offer it something traditional batteries simply cannot deliver – longer flight time! Our relationship with MetaVista has demonstrated that, while fuel cells can achieve much longer flight times, the format of the fuel also has a significant role to play in pushing the boundaries further. We look forward to working with MetaVista over the coming months."

Dr. Jong Baik, MetaVista Inc. CEO, added: "We have valued working with Intelligent Energy over the last few months and we are pleased to announce we will continue to work closely with them. They are leaders in lightweight fuel cells for UAVs and our technologies complement each other well. We aim to work with them to ensure that our high-energy storage capabilities of liquid hydrogen can be utilised safely and conveniently for commercial UAV operators using Intelligent Energy's FCPMs."