A fuel cell is a device which transforms the energy contained in hydrogen into electricity, by combining the hydrogen with oxygen in a “cold” combustion. The exhaust product is water.
Airbus and fuel cells
Fuel cells produce electricity in a cleaner, more efficient way than combustion engines. In addition, the water that is produced by the fuel cells can be used for the aircraft’s water and waste system, which saves weight and therefore reduces fuel consumption.
Airbus, with its partners, the German aerospace centre, the DLR and Michelin successfully performed the first test flight on a civil aircraft where a fuel cell system provided the power for the aircraft’s back-up systems. The test flight was carried out on an A320 test aircraft owned by the DLR in February 2008. During the test, the fuel cell system produced up to 20 Kilo Watts of electrical power. It powered the electric motor pump for the aircraft’s back-up hydraulic circuit and controlled the spoilers, ailerons and elevator actuator.
Currently fuel cell systems for commercial aviation are at an early stage of research and technology and today it is not foreseeable that they would be used for commercial aircraft propulsion. This requires a thousand times the electric energy that was produced during the test flight.
To use fuel cells more extensively on-board commercial aircraft, further improvements need to be made in terms of the amount of energy they produce versus their weight (ratio kilo watt per kilogramme). Fuel cells could eventually replace aircraft functions that currently require the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), such as main engine start and air conditioning, thus paving the way towards emissions free ground operations.
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More about how a fuel cell system works
A fuel cell system, in addition to the fuel cell itself, requires other equipment such as a condenser, which extracts the distilled water, or a “fuel reformer” which can extract the hydrogen from a hydrocarbon fuel - from natural gas to methanol, and even kerosene. Synthetic fuel is here particularly appealing because it does not contain impurities, which simplifies the reforming process. |
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