Design of Fuel Cell Systems for Aviation: Representative Mission Profiles and Sensitivity Analyses

Abstract

The global transition to a clean and sustainable energy infrastructure does not stop at aviation. The European Commission defined a set of environmental goals for the "Flight Path 2050": 75% CO 2 reduction, 90% NO x reduction, and 65% perceived noise reduction. Hydrogen as an energy carrier fulfills these needs, while it would also offer a tenable and flexible solution for intermittent, large-scale energy storage for renewable energy networks. If hydrogen is used as an energy carrier, there is no better device than a fuel cell to convert its stored chemical energy. In order to design fuel cell systems for passenger aircraft, it is necessary to specify the requirements that the system has to fulfill. In this paper, a statistical approach to analyze these requirements is presented, which accounts for variations in the flight mission profile. Starting from a subset of flight data within the desired class (e.g., mid-range inter-European flights) a stochastic model of the random mission profile is inferred. This model allows for subsequent predictions under uncertainty as part of the aircraft design process. By using Monte Carlo-based sampling of flight mission profiles, the range of necessary component sizes, as well as optimal degrees of hybridization with a battery, is explored, and design options are evaluated. Furthermore, Monte Carlo-based sensitivity analysis of performance parameters explores the potential of future technological developments. Results suggest that the improvement of the specific power of the fuel cell is the deciding factor for lowering the energy system mass. The specific energy of the battery has a low influence but acts in conjunction with the specific power of the fuel cell.

Potentials of prognostics and health management for polymer electrolyte fuel cells in aviation applications

“…The analysis of a number of load profiles for A320 and B772 (Kadyk et al , 2019), as well as a load profile for an MEA-APU (van Wensveen et al , 2020) regarding the share of different operating conditions (i.e. high power, load change, idle and cruise – as introduced in the Methodology Section) – reveals significant variance among the different application scenarios.…”

“…In this work, we focus on the application of a PEFC as an auxiliary power source (APU) in a more electric aircraft (MEA) and as a main power source for a short- to medium-range A320 and a long-range B772 aircraft, respectively. The corresponding load profiles are taken from literature (van Wensveen et al , 2020; Kadyk et al , 2019). For the APU only one mission is available, while respectively 50 and 10 load profiles are taken into consideration for the A320 and B772.…”

“…Aviation applications (and also heavy-duty vehicle applications) generally represent rather challenging operating conditions and performance requirements when compared to the application in FC electric cars for individual transport (Cullen et al, 2021;Dyantyi et al, 2017Dyantyi et al, , 2020. To better illustrate the demanding requirements, Figure 3 summarizes some previously established targets and requirements for FCs as the main source of power in an aircraft versus a car (Yang et al, 2021;Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, 2022;McKinsey & Company, 2020;Kadyk et al, 2018Kadyk et al, , 2019Cullen et al, 2021). Notably, aircraft application not only necessitates comparatively high power performance and durability but also the system sizes in terms of rated power are orders of magnitude larger for passenger aircraft.…”

Definitions and implications of climate-neutral aviation

“…Third, the No-emissions aircraft scenario explores the impacts of hypothetical technological breakthroughs enabling emissions-free aviation. These could be, for example, advances in green hydrogen fuel cells or in electric aviation technologies 35,53,54 . Because of the power density of today's batteries and fuel cell stacks, 100% emissions-free aviation is currently unfeasible and unforeseeable in the near-term for mid-to long-haul flights 35,36 .…”

Sensitivity analysis for operating loads in fatigue design of railway vehicles

“…aeronautics. 12 Based on established MBS and FE models, suitable approaches for probabilistic design evaluations are sought in this work. They are required both for the realization of variance-based sensitivity analyses as well as the estimation of the failure probabilities.…”