Airbus and South Africa’s National Aerospace Centre has signed a agreement to jointly fund research into the application of Hydrogen fuel ce...
Airbus aims to develop a emissions-free substitute to small gas turbine engines called Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) onboard aircraft with fuel cells. APUs are used for generating electrical power for starting engine and run acessories while the engine is off, on the ground. It is located in the tapered tail cone section of the rear fuselage. Replacing the fossil-fuel powered APUs with hydrogen fuel cells would help achieve the goals of emission-free and low-noise aircraft operation.
The initial three-year project will be undertaken by Hydrogen South Africa (HySA) Systems Competence Centre at its University of the Western Cape research facility.
Besides, fuel cells would reduce the overall weight of aircraft, leading to lower fuel burn and operating costs together with further reduced carbon emissions during flight. By-products from hydrogen fuel cells could enable aircraft to generate their own water supplies. They would also have a safety benefit, as they can generate inerting gas used to reduce flammability levels in aircraft fuel tanks and for supressing any cargo hold fires.
Fuel cells are also less maintenance intensive than conventional APUs as they do not have any moving parts. They could also potentially replace heavy batteries and conventional fuel tank inerting systems. In doing so they would reduce the weight and fuel consumption of fuel cell-equipped aircraft.
HySA Systems Director, Professor Bruno G. Pollet, said that “although fuel cell technology for land vehicles has rapidly matured, the new research with Airbus and the National Aerospace Centre is aimed at gaining an understanding of how hydrogen fuel cells could perform over an aircraft’s service life while subjected to the harsh and rapidly changing climatic and environmental regimes that commercial jetliners operate in”.
Airbus has already performed test flights involving fuel cells to power individual emergency power systems, but the technology is yet to reach a level to permit the complete replacement of the electrical power systems with a multi-functional fuel cell.
Airbus says the demand for air transport is doubling every 15 years and forecasts global airline industry will require nearly 30,000 new aircraft (over 100 seats) by 2032. Simultaneously, the dual factors of high jet fuel costs and industry commitments to halve 2005 CO2 emissions levels by 2050 are driving the search for alternative solutions to fossil-fuel based propulsion and energy sources.
The effort is the latest element of Airbus’s Research and Technology initiative with South Africa, which was launched in 2006 and involves collaboration with several of the country’s universities and research institutes.
