Cellula Robotics and Infinity Fuel Cell and Hydrogen, Inc. have launched NautiGEN, Inc., a maritime hydrogen power company formed to bring high-density fuel cell power to maritime operations, autonomous systems and subsea applications.
The company was unveiled on World Oceans Day and is entering the market with a focus on power, a practical constraint shaping marine technology. As subsea vehicles, seabed systems and surface platforms are asked to operate farther from support vessels, remain deployed for longer periods and carry more capable payloads, energy availability is central to mission planning, system design and operating cost.
Battery systems remain important across the sector, but longer missions expose practical limits. NautiGEN has developed fuel cell systems to address those conditions. Its architecture separates the fuel cell power plant from the stored hydrogen and oxygen that feed it, allowing mission energy to be increased through storage. For manufacturers and integrators, this provides a more flexible route to balancing endurance, payload energy, range and mission availability.
The company’s initial applications include subsea vehicles, static seabed power systems and surface uncrewed systems.
Neil Manning, CEO of Cellula Robotics, commented, “NautiGEN was created to solve a very practical problem for the maritime market. As missions become longer and more complex, power can decide what is operationally possible. The value of hydrogen fuel cells is not only increased endurance. It is the ability to reduce recovery cycles, support persistent operations and give platform designers more freedom in how they balance range, payload and mission duration.”
The technology base has already been demonstrated in a subsea environment. The fuel cell system powered Cellula Robotics’ Envoy AUV through a more than 2,000 km fully submerged mission over 385 hours of continuous operation, including over 4,000 non-linear maneuvers. The mission demonstrated how fuel cell power can support longer-range transit, extended time on task and fewer recovery events between missions.
NautiGEN’s systems are also being developed for lower-impact maritime power. Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity without combustion, with water as the primary by-product. The technology draws on Infinity’s experience in demanding power applications, including NASA programs, and uses a modular 2 kW core architecture that can be integrated in parallel for higher power requirements.
William Smith, President and CEO of Infinity Fuel Cell and Hydrogen, Inc, added, “Marine operators need power systems that can be trusted through the full mission, not just at launch. Our fuel cell technology has been developed for demanding environments where reliability, integration and safety matter. NautiGEN brings that capability into maritime markets where longer endurance and persistent power are becoming increasingly important.”
