Hydrogen Powered Regional Aircraft?
 

Found this tidbit interesting:

https://www.dlr.de/content/en/articl...t-funding.html

Just food for thought, a CRJ 700/900 generator output is 115VAC @ 40KVA (115 x 40,000 = 4,600,000) = 4.6 megawatts.

but hey, turbo-props are coming back!

Been a while since I did electrical math, but if the gens in a CRJ are 3 phase, that 40kva would equate to about 200 amps each. A bit less than that for single phase. Puts it around 18,000-23,000 watts per gen. This is just spit balling a generic power factor into it.

kva = kilovoltamps. 40kva at 115 volts is 350 amps. Voltage times kva squares the voltage

https://www.coresite.com/blog/faq-what-is-kva

40kva would imply roughly 40kw

A Watt is a VA, a Kilowatt is a KVA. They are 40 KVA which is 40 Kilowatts.

This s a rating of their max power output.

It’s just funny to me that someone, for a short amount of time before being corrected, thought the CRJ was the most efficient power generator in the world. . .

Well it is a Canadian Jet, so using rough numbers. If at 115v and 40Kva, how many “sorrys” per “Eh” is that?

Yes, there are no mega-watt class electrical power sources on a CRJ, lol.

The engines themselves would have a power output in the MW range (if you convert thrust to MW).

H2 has some appealing attributes for use in green aircraft.

The problems are the production, storage, and handling. H2 is either an highly explosive pressurized gas, or a highly explosive cryogenic liquid. It is also much less dense than Jet A

On the ground that would require all-new infrastructure. Since H2 is produced from water and electricity it's inherent "greenness" is dependent on the source of the grid power used to make it. You might be able to produce it onsite at the airport, if you had enough space available.

On the plane, you'd need a clean-sheet design to accommodate enough fuel tanks to hold larger quantities of the less-dense H2. H2 is lighter than Jet A (higher specific energy), but that would probably be offset by the weight of larger tanks, the weight of structure to hold the larger tanks, and the associated form drag of said structure. Might be able to mitigate that with a radical fuselage design, like a flying wing (which has it's own logistics issues).

I think it more likely future regional jets will be electric powered. That merely requires a slight technological breakthrough in extension cord technology...

While my dreams of becoming a Electrical Engineer are shot. I wanted to put forth the notion that maybe we’re barking up the wrong tree. Sure H2 has 3 times the energy on a per mass (weight) unit. However it’s the volume that’s the issue. So in the mean time how about developing hybrid aircraft, at least until the H2 storage and production method & technology mature.