Hydrogen fuel cells are nowhere near powerful enough to replace a commercial
aircraft's engines, but that doesn't mean they can't help make air travel
cleaner and more efficient.
Airbus plans flight tests of a fuel-cell system that could reduce fuel
consumption by as much as 15 percent simply by powering an aircraft's
nonpropulsion systems such as the lights, the entertainment system, and the
environmental controls.
The 90-kilowatt
hydrogen fuel cell will be installed into an A320 owned by the German
Aerospace Center with the aim of commencing test flights by 2015.
The fuel cell will act as an auxiliary power source, says Jeff Rolf, vice
president of business development and global services at Cleveland, Ohio-based
Parker Aerospace , which is developing the system with Airbus. The idea is to
remove the need to run the engines when the plane is on the ground, and to
reduce the drain normally placed on the engines by nonpropulsion systems during
flight.
Besides the lights, entertainment system, and environment controls, the fuel
cell will power the avionics, the hydraulics, and the system used to keep fuel
tanks safe by maintaining artificially low oxygen levels. Currently, an
aircraft's main engines produce electrical power for these systems during a
flight while a separate auxiliary power unit a small turbine often contained
within the tail powers them on the ground.
Niger, Niamey
Myanmar, Rangoon,
Morocco, Rabat
Ghana, Accra
Swaziland, Mbabane
Erie, Pennsylvania
Sri Lanka Colombo
Corona, California
Mount Isa, Queensland
Al Khashfah, United Arab Emirates, Al Khashfah, UAE
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