Australian aerospace company AMSL Aero and Victoria-based Deakin University’s hydrogen hub Hycel have entered into a research partnership to help deliver higher-performance hydrogen fuel cells for aviation.
New South Wales (NSW)-headquartered AMSL Aero is the first industry partner to access commercial testing of fuel cells at the Hycel facility, which opened in October 2024, with aims to manufacture a long range hydrogen-electric aircraft for air ambulance or emergency response services.
AMSL Aero’s Senior Project Engineer Simon Coburn said AMSL Aero’s partnership with Hycel will help verify fuel cell performance and durability for remote and regional flight applications.
“This is a key step in the development of Vertiia, Australia’s first passenger-capable, emission-free, long-range hydrogen-powered vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft,” Coburn said.
“Our partnership leverages hydrogen expertise from AMSL’s international fuel cell partner, and combined with AMSL and Hycel personnel, develops cross sector hydrogen expertise for Australia.”
AMSL Aero
Hycel Director Professor Tiffany Walsh said Hycel’s role is to support industry to develop, test, scale and adopt hydrogen technologies to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
“We do this by providing specialist hydrogen infrastructure, equipment, expertise and research insights that are currently unavailable to Australian industry,” Walsh said.
Located at Deakin’s Warrnambool campus, 260 kilometres southwest of Melbourne, the Hycel Technology Hub is equipped with high pressure, high flow hydrogen labs and is the only hydrogen fuel cell testing equipment of its kind in Australia with provision for industry co-location.
“We designed Hycel Technology Hub to provide hydrogen fuel cell prototyping, assembly, testing and validating capability to unlock new markets for industry and support growth of low and zero-carbon solutions,’ Walsh said.
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