Fuel cell development could lead to greener flights
While batteries have their limits for aviation, a type of fuel cell may be the future for aviation. Unlike a battery which needs to be recharged, it can be quickly refuelled with liquid sodium metal, an inexpensive and widely available resource. Oxygen atoms mix with the fuel, generating electricity.
In a series of experiments using a prototype device, the team of researchers demonstrated that the fuel cell could carry over three times as much energy per unit of weight as a lithium-ion battery like the kind used in modern electric cars. Their findings were published in the journal Joule, in a paper by MIT doctoral students.
“We expect people to think that this is a totally crazy idea,” professor of materials science and engineering Yet-Ming Chiang said. “If they didn’t, I’d be a bit disappointed because if people don’t think something is totally crazy at first, it probably isn’t going to be that revolutionary.”
The technology appears to have the potential to be revolutionary, he suggested, especially for aviation where weight is crucial. Improvements in energy density could be crucial in the development of carbon-free flights in the future, making electrically powered flights more practical at a larger scale.
“The threshold that you really need for realistic electric aviation is about 1,000 watt-hours per kilogram,” Chiang says. Current lithium-ion batteries max out at around 300 watt-hours per kilogram, far less than what is needed. Even 1,000 watt-hours per kilogram, Chiang says, is not enough for transcontinental or transatlantic flights.
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