A Study on Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Electric Propulsion Systems for Multirotors

The growing need for sustainable aviation propulsion has increased interest in hydrogen fuel cell systems as alternatives to combustion engines. This study presents the modeling, simulation, and optimization of a hybrid hydrogen–electric powertrain for the MIMIQ unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A 2 kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell is integrated with a 12S lithium-polymer battery via a DC–DC converter, enabling parallel power sharing and in-flight battery recharging. A MATLAB-based dynamic model was developed using mission power profiles derived from flight data and refined using momentum theory. The developed model was benchmarked through a comparative simulation of a combustion-based hybrid-electric powertrain variant of the same platform, demonstrating consistency in electrical and energetic behavior. Multi-objective optimization using NSGA-II was performed to maximize hover endurance and to minimize energy consumption while maximizing payload over a full mission. Results from this computational framework show that endurance is primarily constrained by hydrogen availability rather than battery capacity, with the fuel cell operating near its optimal efficiency region. The findings indicate that hydrogen–electric architectures offer improved endurance, reduced emissions and better scalability compared to combustion-based systems, supporting their suitability for long-endurance UAV applications.