Impact of tank gravimetric efficiency on propulsion system integration for a first-generation hydrogen civil airliner

Abstract Civil aircraft that fly long ranges consume a large fraction of civil aviation fuel, injecting an important amount of aviation carbon into the atmosphere. Decarbonising solutions must consider this sector. A philosophical-analytical feasibility of an airliner family to assist in the elimination of carbon dioxide emissions from civil aviation is proposed. It comprises four models based on the integration of the body of a large two-deck airliner with the engines, wings and flight surfaces of a long-range twin widebody jet. The objective of the investigation presented here is to evaluate the impact of liquid hydrogen tank technology in terms of gravimetric efficiency. A range of hydrogen storage gravimetric efficiencies was evaluated; from a pessimistic value of 0.30 to a futuristic value of 0.85. This parameter has a profound influence on the overall fuel system weight and an impact on the integrated performance. The resulting impact is relatively small for the short-range aircraft; it increases with range and is important for the longer-range aircraft. For shorter-range aircraft variants, the tanks needed to store the hydrogen are relatively small, so the impact of tank weight is not significant. Longer range aircraft are weight constrained and the influence of tank weight is important. In the case of the longest range, the deliverable distance increases from slightly over 4,000 nautical miles, with a gravimetric efficiency of 0.3, to nearly 7,000 with a gravimetric efficiency of 0.85.