N101-033 TITLE: Highly Integrated, Highly Efficient Fuel Reformer/Fuel Cell System

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-263, Navy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Program

OBJECTIVE: Develop innovative technologies for fuel cell system components and methods for integration to enable a highly compact and efficient fuel cell system that can meet stringent naval aviation electrical, operational, and environmental requirements. Proposed solutions which can minimize the logistic footprint of the packaged system while increasing efficiency and power density are sought.

DESCRIPTION: Fuel cells are seen as an enabling technology for both legacy and future aircraft platforms. The successful development and integration of fuel cell systems onboard aircraft could yield benefits such as increased fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and reduced maintenance. The Navy seeks the development of enabling technologies for desulphurization and reformation of JP-5 jet fuel into the pure hydrogen fuel required for fuel cell power generation. These critical technologies are in the early development phases and require significant innovation and research in order to meet naval aviation requirements and application needs. In addition, multiple fuel cell types are being investigated for naval aviation applications including, but not limited to, Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC), but significant research and adaptation of these technologies is required in order to meet naval aviation requirements.

Advanced technologies and methodologies are sought for the design, development, and integration of military-grade fuel cell system components (e.g. desulphurizer, reformer, fuel cell stack, and balance of plant) to enable a highly compact and efficient fuel cell system that can meet the stringent electrical, operational, and environmental requirements of naval aviation applications. Under this program effort, the critical technology areas to be addressed are high system efficiency, high power density, and air platform system integration.

Due to severe size and weight restrictions, fuel cell systems for naval aviation applications must be very compact. Systems capable of utilizing logistic JP-5 jet fuel to produce a pure hydrogen stream output equivalent to 10 KW electrical power, at a minimum, are desired. Actual requirements for the capacity of the fuel cell system may vary depending on the transitioning aircraft platform and/or application. The proposed technical approach must account for maximizing the life of the overall fuel cell system while meeting all other applicable naval aviation requirements.

Operational requirements include cold temperature start (-55C), short start-up time (1-8 minutes), short duty cycle (as severe as 1-2 hours on and 22-23 hours off per day, operating daily), air supply/intake (not available in purified form), and water management (no storage, water must either be recycled or removed). Electrical requirements include MIL-STD-704 power quality, high load inrush currents, rapid response to load changes, transients, and faults. Environmental requirements include temperature (-55C to 91C), altitude (up to 70,000 ft), shock (20G/11ms operational, 40G/11ms crash), vibration (17G functional, 28G endurance), and Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) (MIL-STD-461). In addition to meeting these requirements, the fuel cell system must prove to be cost-effective including meeting applicable acquisition, maintenance, reliability, and other operations and support goals. Applicable naval aviation requirements will be further defined throughout the development process.

PHASE I: Define a technical approach and an implementation plan for the design, development, and integration of an aviation based fuel reformer/fuel cell system. Validate the approach analytically or provide test data or bench top hardware that would validate the approach.

PHASE II: Design, develop, and demonstrate a highly integrated, highly efficient, prototype fuel reformer/fuel cell system that meets the requirements detailed in the description. Demonstration may include a high-fidelity laboratory environment and/or aircraft ground demonstration.

PHASE III: Optimize the highly integrated, highly efficient, prototype fuel reformer/fuel cell system to be utilized in a Navy aircraft application. Potential applications include auxiliary power unit (APU), battery replacement/supplement, secondary power source, small primary propulsion systems, and ground power carts. Perform a functional evaluation of the optimized system displaying the improved performance of the overall fuel cell system. Demonstration may include an aircraft ground or flight demonstration.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The successful implementation of a highly integrated, highly efficient fuel reformer/fuel cell unit can be widespread and range across various military and commercial applications. The commercial aviation industry can utilize the technologies and/or processes to further increase power densities and reduce the weight of similar alternative power sources. Benefits could also carry into the commercial fuel cell sector with a primary impact on increasing efficiency while reducing size, weight, and volume of current technologies. Commercial fuel cell markets that could benefit from this technology include aviation, automotive, stationary power, and mobile electric power sources.

REFERENCES:
1. "Supporting next-gen propulsion"; Aerospace Engineering magazine, April 2007.

2. "Reformation of Jet Fuels for Navy Ground Cart Applications", SAE Power Systems Conference 2006, Document Number: 2006-01-3095, www.sae.org/events/psc

3. "Boeing prepares fuel cell demonstrator airplane for ground and flight testing", Fuel Cell Today, 28 March 2007, http://fuelcelltoday.com/FuelCellToday/IndustryInformation/IndustryInformationExternal/NewsDisplayArticle/0,1602,8971,00.html

KEYWORDS: Fuel Cell; Fuel Reformer; Fuel Efficiency; Integration; Thermal Management; JP-5 Jet Fuel

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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