SOFC-APU systems for aircraft: A review (original) (raw)

Fuel Cell Apu’s in Commercial Aircraft – an Assessment of Sofc and Pemfc Concepts

2004

Future aircraft will have to deal with a set of stricter and new technical, operational and economical requirements towards in-flight and on ground power generation for primary and secondary aircraft systems. The reduction of fuel consumption, noise and exhaust emissions calls for new technologies, of which fuel cells show a high potential for future realization because of the unmatched efficiency and environmental performance. Basically, two types of fuel cells, i.e. low temperature PEMFCs and high temperature SOFCs, seem to be technically feasible to enter the market in the coming 10 to 20 years. Considerable differences in performance, possible concepts and integration into the aircraft favor the one or the other. According to dedicated fuel cell concepts, simulations have been modeled to obtain results which form the basis for a general assessment of compatibility with major aircraft systems in more electrical aircraft architectures. Additionally, integration concepts have been ...