Session: 01-07 Thermal Management Systems and Heat Exchangers

Paper Number: 151328

Fuel Cell Hybrid-Electric Aircraft Performance: Optimizing Thermal Management for Reduced Climate Impact 

This paper addresses the feasibility of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) to reduce the climate impact of civil aviation from a performance calculation perspective. PEMFC systems are considered one of the most promising and suitable approaches to mitigate climate effects as they do not cause CO_2 or NO_x emissions. However, the thermal management of fuel cells and electric components poses a major challenge: Despite the large amounts of waste heat generated, very limited optimal operating temperature ranges must be respected. At the same time, these components and the required heat exchanger impose a significant mass penalty that must be considered in the overall aircraft mass and thrust requirements.

A PEMFC model and a heat exchanger model based on the Effectiveness-Number of Transfer Units (epsilon-NTU) method are implemented in the Modular Aircraft Engine Performance Tool for Sustainable Aviation (MAPLE) to evaluate their performance and mass. Various propulsion configurations are then developed and derived from the literature, including fully electric and gas turbine hybrid-electric fuel cell engines with propellers or electric fans as well as parallel and series cooling concepts. The implemented models are used for a preliminary investigation of these configurations along realistic flight missions in terms of propulsion power requirements, waste heat generation, fuel consumption, and emissions. The results are compared to a conventional turbofan gas turbine engine. Optimization of the thermal management system is applied to minimize additional mass, fuel consumption, and thus emissions and climate impact.

Overall, the use of PEMFCs with green hydrogen can reduce the climate impact of civil aviation by eliminating CO_2 or NO_x emissions for fully electric concepts, or decreasing them for hybrid concepts. However, the large additional mass of both the fuel cell and the thermal management system penalizes the payload or range of conventional aircraft, resulting in poorer economic performance.

Presenting Author: Marcus Wiegand Technische Universität Dresden

Presenting Author Biography: Marcus Wiegand is a research associate at the Chair of Turbomachinery and Flight Propulsion at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, since 2023. He holds a Dipl.-Ing. (equivalent to M.S.) degree in Aerospace Engineering from Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, which he received in 2023. He completed his diploma thesis in cooperation with Rolls-Royce Germany.

His research interests encompass the development of sustainable aircraft propulsion systems, such as hybrid-electric or hydrogen-powered engines, with a special focus on modeling their performance. He is currently working on this as a research associate at Technische Universität Dresden.

Authors:

Marcus Wiegand Technische Universität Dresden
Lukas Schuchard Technische Universität Dresden
Simone Diego Lauro Technische Universität Dresden
Martin Lange Technische Universität Dresden
Ronald Mailach Technische Universität Dresden