Modelling and Initial Assessment of a Fuel Cell Auxiliary Propulsion and Power Unit (Presentation)

Presentation held as part of the conference paper ICAS2024_0261 in session 14.3 at the 34th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences in Florence. The paper discusses the modelling and initial assessment of a novel high-temperature Fuel Cell Auxiliary Propulsion and Power Unit (FC-APPU) for a short-to-medium range multi-fuel passenger aircraft with an entryinto-service of 2035. The FC-APPU is characterized by its ability to not only provide power for aircraft subsystems, but also power for thrust generation. The general system architecture of a FC-APPU is introduced, along with an overview of the implemented cell, stack and system modelling approaches. A baseline aircraft is defined and corresponding profiles for subsystem and propulsive power demands are derived. The fuel cell system is assessed over the entirety of an aircraft mission and integration implications are evaluated in terms of system mass, drag and hydrogen consumption based on different technology scenarios. The results are compared to a Fuel Cell Auxiliary Power Unit (FC-APU) of the same entry-into-service and technology status.