62 March/April 2024 | E-Mobility Engineering compartment of a typical Class 8 heavy-duty truck, enhancing standardisation and redundancy.” Pozzi points to the collaboration with the maturing supply chain on new BoP component designs and related design costs for integration into a vehicle, as well as investments in certain production tooling to help reduce the cost of assembling the fuel-cell engines. Aircraft In late 2023, the ZEROe team at Airbus developed a hydrogen-propulsion system for an electric concept aircraft. As well as the hydrogen fuel cells, the system, called an iron pod, contains the electric motors required to spin a propeller, and the units that control and cool them. The 1.2 MW system is a key step towards having a hydrogenpropulsion aircraft in service by 2035. Extensive testing on the fuel-cell system occurred at E-Aircraft System House (EAS) in Ottobrunn, Germany. “It was a huge moment for us, because the architecture and design principles of the system are the same as those we will see in the final design,” says Mathias Andriamisaina, head of testing and demonstration on the ZEROe project. “The complete power channel was run at 1.2 MW – the power we aim to test on our A380 demonstrator.” The tests particularly examined the way systems interact. “This process is how we learn what changes need to be made to make the technology flightworthy,” says Hauke Peer-Luedders, head of fuel-cell propulsion system for ZEROe. “We measure how the propulsion system as a whole works by testing the power needed for several different flight phases, such as takeoff, where we are reaching maximum power levels, and cruising, when we use less power but over a longer period of time.” Testing will continue on this first version of the iron pod throughout 2024. Once completed, the next step for the ZEROe team will be to optimise the size, mass and qualifications of the propulsion system to meet flight specifications. Qualifications include the system’s reaction to vibration, humidity and altitude, among other factors. Once these optimisations and tests are complete, the fuel-cell propulsion system will be installed on the very first A380 ever produced by Airbus, the MSN001. This will be followed by ground-testing of the systems before the pivotal stage of testing them in flight on the A380, scheduled for 2026. Looking ahead The next step for Airbus is to use cryogenic cooling for the hydrogen to support superconducting elements in the fuel cell and the electric motor. The Cryoprop demonstrator will integrate 2 MW-class, superconducting, electric propulsion systems, cooled by liquid hydrogen via a helium recirculation loop, and developed by Airbus teams in Toulouse, France and in Ottobrunn. Airbus has been developing superconducting technologies for highpower electric propulsion for several years, culminating in the power-on of an integrated, 500 kW cryogenic propulsion system last year. The plan is to develop expertise in superconducting cables, motors, cryogenic power electronics and cryogenic cooling systems. Deep insight | Hydrogen fuel cells The FCmove-XD ninth-generation fuel cell for big trucks (Image courtesy of Ballard Power Systems) Using hydrogen for cryogenic cooling of an aircraft engine (Image courtesy of Airbus)
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