Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for Aviation

Abstract

The Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) offers major benefits, namely electrical efficiency and fuel versatility, for hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion. The combined development of novel SOFC concepts and corresponding manufacturing processes are regarded as key objectives for the SOFC activities at Airbus Central Research and Technology. Airbus is designing, manufacturing and testing SOFC concepts with the aim to achieve highest gravimetric power densities. Novel manufacturing technologies for metallic and ceramic materials have the potential to enable lighter functional layers for SOFCs with increased intrinsic mechanical stability and surface area. Different cell concepts with an optimized current collection are currently under development at Airbus. The micro-tubular and monolithic SOFC are seen as the most promising concepts, whereas around 2 kW/kg on a cell level has recently been achieved in a performance test at Airbus.