Batteries to Power A Passenger Airplane

Batteries may be used in future to power passenger airplanes, according to researchers at Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research. They have created new computer models to predict the life and performance of batteries that could power some passenger airplanes. It is also a step forward for cleaner and more efficient travel.
The models show that adding
lithium-ion batteries to a regional airplane could reduce that airplane’s fuel
needs by up to 20 percent, the researchers said. The team presented the findings
last week at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Electric
Aircraft Technologies Symposium in Indianapolis.
“We are working on ways to make
air travel less carbon-intensive,” said Marcello Canova, a co-presenter and
associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State.
“Lithium-ion batteries, including the technology that is commercially available
today, appear to be a promising option.”
The research is conducted under
NASA’s University Leadership Initiative program, and focuses on evaluating the
trade-offs between fuel savings and a battery pack’s size, weight and costs,
while also including the carbon impact of the electricity necessary to recharge
the battery pack. The models and tools developed were a joint effort between
researchers at Ohio State and Georgia Institute of Technology, and could help
airplane and airplane battery designers better understand how an aircraft’s
design affects its ability to be powered by a battery.
In preliminary designs, the
researchers focused on lithium-ion battery packs that could supplement the
power produced by the engines of a regional jet – one traveling 600 or fewer
miles, carrying 50 to 100 passengers.
Their model showed in tests
that a battery has the ability to power about 30 percent of the total power
required for an airplane to climb to cruising altitude, and about 20 percent of
the power required to cruise.
That could reduce levels of
carbon dioxide – a primary driver of climate change – that airplanes contribute
to the atmosphere. Air travel contributes about 2 percent of the carbon dioxide
humans put into Earth’s atmosphere, according to the Air Transit Action Group.
This research team, led by Ohio State and four other universities, has been
funded by NASA to find new, less carbon-intensive ways to power air travel.
“Our team is focusing on
evaluating the feasibility and economics of introducing lithium-ion batteries
to air travel,” Canova said. “And we’re working on the ways to make that safe
and reliable.”
heir work also considers how
to make batteries for air travel more efficient. Batteries that power
automobiles differ from those that help power airplanes, Canova said: Airplane
batteries must abide by more-strict weight, safety, durability and reliability
standards.
But batteries deteriorate with
use, offering less power over time and decreasing the range an airplane can
travel. That deterioration also means less power is available to help an
airplane accelerate and reach its maximum speed. Temperature affects batteries,
as well.
To lay the groundwork for a
better battery, Canova said, the team built a computer model of an
electro-thermal battery pack and added an algorithm that simulated the effects
of time and use on batteries. Then they tested to see how that model performed
after repeated use and under various temperatures.
The team planned for the
battery to be used for six flights per day, and calculated the power necessary
for takeoff, climbing, cruising, landing and taxiing to the runway. They
allotted one hour between flights to charge the battery pack, and assumed that
the pack could be used for two years, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
They found that a battery pack’s
performance is limited by capacity fade, a term used to describe energy loss in
a battery over time. And they found that time, not use, is the main driver of
battery deterioration.
What they developed, Canova
said, is essentially a tool that can be used to predict the effect stressors
such as aging and use might have on a lithium-ion battery powering a regional
aircraft, which is a very important factor when evaluating costs and benefits
of introducing this technology in air travel.
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