HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS IN

AVIATION INDUSTRY

PRESENTED BY
SONU GOPAN
S7 EEE
ROLL NO - 42

1
 PREFACE

• About Hydrogen as a fuel.

• Fuel cells

• Propulsion system

• Prototype

2
 INTRODUCTION

Aircrafts are major contributors to carbon emissions. To fly round-trip from New York to London
produces the same amount of emissions as the average household produces heating their home for an
entire year. Right now, direct emissions from global aviation accounts for more than 3% of the total
greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

Over the years, aviation emissions have increased along with higher travel. Between 1990 and 2012,
carbon emission from the global aviation industry increased more than 150%.

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 WHY NOT LITHIUM ION BATTERIES?

• Compressed hydrogen has a specific energy(aka

energy per unit mass) of nearly 40,000 watt hours
per kilogram.

• Lithium ion batteries at best have a specific

energy of just 278 wh/kg, but most fall around
167 wh/kg.

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CONTINUATON….

• The power needed for lift is given by the following

equation.

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 FUEL CELL-WORKING

• Fuel cells undergo a chemical process to convert

hydrogen-rich fuel into electricity.

• They do not need to be periodically recharged

like batteries, but instead continue to produce
electricity as long as a fuel source is provided.

• Due to their high efficiency, fuel cells are very

clean, with their only by-products being
electricity, excess heat, and water.  

• In addition, as fuel cells do not have any

moving parts, they operate near-silently. 6
 DIFFERENT TYPES OF FUEL CELLS
Different types of fuel cells are generally categorized by the electrolyte used. Five common types of H2 fuel
cells are presented in the table below.

Electrolyte Operating Application Comments

Temperature
Alkali Potassium 150-200°C Space (Apollo, Expensive, requires
Hydroxide Shuttle) pure H2 and 02.
Molten Carbonate Carbonate salts 650°C Large Stationary Complex, need
power plants CO2 source or
recycling system.
Phosphoric Acid Phosphoric Acids 150-200°C Small stationary, Extended warm-up
mobile power period, large and
plants heavy.
Proton Exchange Polymer Membrane 80°C Small stationary, Quick start-up,
Membrane mobile power high power density.
plants
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Solid Oxide Ceramic 650-1000°C Large stationary, Some interest in
power plants use for mobile
power.
 PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE (PEM) FUEL
CELLS
• PEM replaces the electrolyte rich water for a
solid polymer electrolyte membrane,
sandwiched between the anode and cathode,
with channels to allow water and gas and
solution to flow through.

• The overall chemical reaction is exactly the

same, while requiring less voltage to operate
efficiently, and more importantly, has a rapid
response time, making it ideal for integration
to the grid as an energy storage method.

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FUEL CELL PROPULSION SYSTEM

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 STORING THE HYDROGEN FUEL

Hydrogen can be stored in 2 ways

• Compressed Hydrogen
• Liquefied Hydrogen

We can compress the hydrogen to 790 times atmospheric pressure, but that takes energy, about 13% of the total
energy content of the hydrogen itself.

Alternatively we can turn hydrogen into liquid, cryogenically.

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 EFFICIENCY

• Any kind of electrolysis requires DC current, and therefore, a rectifier will be required to convert the AC
current from the grid to DC. We also need to convert the DC current produced by the fuel cell to AC to
power the motor through an inverter. Finally, the efficiency of the motor must be considered for fuel cell
powered aircrafts.

• Currently, this is around 90-95% for both of them, which is amazing when we consider that internal
combustion engines running on petrol have an efficiency of only around 20-30%

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 PROTOTYPE - ELEMENT ONE

• Could currently host four to ten

passengers

• Range between 500 and 5,000

kilometers – depending whether
the hydrogen is stored in gas or
liquid form

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 CONTINUATION….
• The fuel cells used here is the
AEROPAK series which
combines its extremely
lightweight fuel cells to high
energy density hydrogen energy
storage.
AEROPAK series comes in 4 standard
storage configurations:
• Swappable pod
• Gaseous
• Liquid hydride
• Solid hydride.

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 ADVANTAGES
• Hydrogen is lighter than air: it can be purged using emergency valves in the event of a fire, and if it does ignite,
it won't pool around the vehicle, engulfing it and its passengers in flames.

• High efficiency as compared to conventional internal combustion engines.

• When hydrogen is used to power a fuel cell, the only byproducts are water and heat-no pollutants or greenhouse
gases are produced.

• Hydrogen can be produced using a wide variety of resources and processes.

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 DISADVANTAGES
• It is not easy to replace existing infrastructure.

• Hydrogen is very hard to move around, transport and store.

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FUTURE SCOPE

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 REFERENCES
• “A study on propeller performance of a fuel cell powered propulsion system”- Norhisyam Jenal, Wahyu
Kuntjoro , Thomas Arthur Ward, Mohd Rozaiman Aziz, N. V. David - Published in: 2012 IEEE
International Conference on Control System, Computing and Engineering.

• https://www.hes.sg/element-one (Prototype Reference)

• Real Engineering Channel - Youtube

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