Potential Applications of Fuel Cells in Air Mobility
2022-26-1216
05/26/2022
- Event
- Content
- The climate change impact due to increased greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide (NOx) and ozone etc. has been immense over the years and causing increase in temperatures of the earth’s surface and global warming. Recently, there is a significant effort to reduce the emissions especially after Paris agreement in 2015. There are several research initiatives across the globe to reduce the emissions like NOx, CO2 and other harmful substances. The air mobility also contributed to the increased greenhouse gases due to CO2 and NOx. This paper presents the potential applications of fuel cells for air mobility that includes helicopters, hybrid electric aircrafts and all electric aircrafts to achieve the reduced emissions and reduced fuel consumption. The objective of this paper is to take a broad view of how fuel cell technology works, various types of existing technologies and their potential applications and challenges for air mobility vehicles in terms of power density. In this study, the low temperature Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells have been considered for the volumetric and gravimetric calculations due to their higher efficiency. In addition, the different ways of generating and storing of the hydrogen gas on board have been explored. The volumetric and gravitational assessments have been done for hydrogen (H2) gas, liquid H2, reformed Methanol H2, chemical hydride H2 and metal hydride H2 including H2 storage tank and compared with the conventional air mobility vehicle engines e.g. aircraft engines, helicopter engines etc. The power density comparison has been made with battery vs various mediums of storing the H2 fuel cells. The case studies were presented for potential replacement of conventional gas turbine engines in helicopters with fuel cells, replacing the shaft power off-take in civil large engines with fuel cells for hybrid long range aircrafts and replacing the regional propeller jet engines with all electric engines using the fuel cells. Keywords: PEM Fuel cells, H2 storage, Shaft power off-take, Liquid H2, Reformed Methanol, Chemical and Metal Hydride
- Citation
- Kari, S., and Kumar, R., "Potential Applications of Fuel Cells in Air Mobility," SAE Technical Paper 2022-26-1216, 2022, .