Colloquia

Summary

Battery-electric aviation (BEA) has recently been re-evaluated by researchers and according to their findings, routes of up to 2000 km can be covered with BEA, by which potentially 20% of global aviation emissions can be mitigated. To this end, Elysian Aircraft is developing a 90-seater battery electric aircraft, the E9X. The high battery capacity of this aircraft combined with a charging time limit of 45 minutes implies a charging power level in the order of 10 MW, i.e. charging at a multi megawatt scale is to be expected. Although a promising new technology, its successful implementation is likely to face a barrier, namely that of nonexistent BEA charging infrastructure. In this thesis, a conceptual design is developed of a BEA charger for Elysian’s E9X. Through a list of requirements and a subsequent system architecture, a conceptual design was developed, focusing on power converters as the core performance components. Out of six concepts, one concept was selected of which the power converters together had an efficiency of 95.8%, a cost of €1,900,000 and volume of 72.6 m3. Subsequently, the conceptual design was worked out further to a preliminary design, in which all functions identified in the system architecture were allocated to specific components. Finally, the preliminary design was evaluated on how well it adheres to the list of requirements and what its impact would be on an airport’s electricity grid and the employees involved in refueling. Evaluation of the design based on the list of requirements shows that half of the requirements have been met and the other half needs further investigation to make the BEA charger fully operational. The preliminary design imposes an average and peak power demand on the airport’s electricity grid of 13.7 MW and 17.6 MW, respectively, with an efficiency of 93.6%. When taking Schiphol by example, replacing all 2000 km flights with BEA would lead to an 11.5-fold increase in electrical energy demand as a result of the BEA charger as proposed in the preliminary design. Local PV power generation was proved unsuitable to decrease the load imposed on Schiphol’s electricity grid, however this might be feasible for airports with a larger amount of available area. Lastly, the design’s impact on employment manifests in resignation of fuel storage facility workers and possibly of maintenance workers, whereas other job positions are conserved through reschooling. Increased fire-hazards decrease the safety of the employees’ work environment and therefore, workwear needs to become more strict and the role of firefighters has become even more important.