Preliminary studies of a regional aircraft with hydrogen-based hybrid propulsion
Vincenzo Palladino, Arnaud Jordan, Nathalie Bartoli, Peter Schmollgruber, Valérie Pommier‐Budinger, Emmanuel Bénard
Abstract
View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2021-2411.vid This paper addresses the topic of conceptual design of a regional aircraft with hybrid electric propulsion based on hydrogen fuel cells. It aims at proving the interest in the fuel cell technology for a regional aircraft of the 70-80 seat class to reduce its environmental impact. First, a description of the aircraft design platform used to perform the analysis is given, with a special focus on presenting the methods used to model the hydrogen-based hybrid propulsion. Then, the selection of the hybrid electric architecture and the sizing of the propulsion system are presented. Finally, the performances of the hybrid aircraft have been evaluated for different sizes of the electrical propulsive system as well as for different design missions. Comparing the results in terms of block fuel, CO2 equivalence and NOx emissions, with the performance of the conventional baseline aircraft, the study provides a preliminary assessment of the potential benefits to be expected by the fuel cell technology applied on a large turboprop passenger aircraft. Appreciable reductions of both CO2 equivalence and NOx can be observed, with peaks for the best hybrid configuration of -24% and -40%, respectively.