One of the main challenges for fuel cell propulsion, aside from hydrogen storage and the fuel cells themselves, is thermal management. Fuel cells dissipate around 50% of the energy as heat, necessitating cooling systems up to a megawatt range for a 100-passenger aircraft. While such cooling systems are widely used in ground applications, including pumps, fans, heat exchangers, sensors, pipes, reservoirs, filters and valves, there are currently no airborne cooling systems in the megawatt range available. A lightweight and reliable system approach with two liquid cooling loops will be presented. Design approaches for key components will be discussed, including a design to achieve a 70% weight reduction for the cooling fluid pump compared to ground pumps. Additionally, the impacts of using active versus passive thermal expansion reservoirs and the design approaches for liquid-to-air heat exchangers as well as thermal control valves will be explored.
Philipp et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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