An overview of the possibilities, current status, and limitations of battery technologies to electrify aviation

This work aims to discuss the feasibility of including battery technologies to electrify aviation, highlighting their great potential, but also outlining some of the main technological challenges that will be faced in the coming years. The work is framed within the EFACA (Environmentally Friendly Aviation for All Classes of Aircraft) project, a project funded by the European Commission through the Horizon Europe Programme, which focusses on the analysis and development of new technologies to make aviation more sustainable. The first step in determining which applications of battery technology are most suitable for each type of aircraft is to have an overview of these technologies; understand the main challenges when including batteries in aviation (battery performance, safety issues, problems in battery manufacturing, and disposal); and study the performance metrics characteristic of each type and establish a battery classification. From batteries, based on such important characteristics as their specific energy requirements or operating profiles, it is possible to define aircraft types according to the different applications and extend the study to aircraft classes. This work presents a summary of all the aforementioned topics, from a first presentation of batteries, their possibilities in the electrification of aviation and the main technological challenges, to a classification of batteries according to their performance metrics. This is followed by a characterisation of which types of aircraft could use these technologies and what technological developments should be achieved to continue progress towards a cleaner aviation.