IMOTHEP European project An investigation of the potential of hybrid electric propulsion for reducing emissions of commercial aircraft
Le projet européen IMOTHEP - Une étude du potentiel de la propulsion hybride électrique pour réduire les émissions de l'aviation commerciale
Résumé
The primary goal of the IMOTHEP European project was to achieve a key step in assessing the potential of hybrid thermal-electric propulsion for reducing commercial aircraft fuel consumption beyond the performance of conventional propulsion technologies projected to 2035. For that, technical objectives included identifying the propulsion architectures and associated aircraft configurations for which HEP brings a benefit, but also investigating the most promising technologies for the components of a hybrid propulsion chain. Beyond, the final objective was to propose a research and technology roadmap for the maturation of hybridization for commercial aircraft.
IMOTHEP investigated four aircraft configurations, their power train architecture and the associated components for the regional and SMR missions. Results showed that hybridization is not a candidate for SMR aircraft in the short/medium term. An aircraft concept and hybrid architecture that benefits from hybridization is still to identify for this class of aircraft, while the technical challenges, especially associated to the required high voltage for power distribution, push the emergence of an operational aircraft to a longer term horizon, beyond 2035-2040. For regional aircraft, IMOTHEP identified a promising configuration exceeding initial project's targets. The fully electric aircraft with a thermal range extender ("plug-in" hybrid) offers an unrivalled energy efficiency over the 200 nm typical mission of regional aircraft and still achieves a fuel burn reduction with the extender mode over the 600 nm design mission. Beside this original architecture, turboelectric power train does not look interesting, while the conclusions for parallel hybrid are lukewarm: at least, significant battery performances are required and the maximum foreseen benefit, about 10%, is mainly achievable on short-range missions.
The paper exposes the main results of the studies performed on electric power trains and aircraft configurations. It concludes on the main orientations for further maturing hybrid electric propulsion.
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