I-Corps: Hydrogen Micro Gas Turbines for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

I-Corps：用于小型无人机 (UAV) 的氢气微型燃气轮机

• 批准号: 2219674
• 负责人: Li Qiao
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-05-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2219674&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Hydrogen; Micro; Gas; Turbines

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of hydrogen fuel-based micro gas turbines for small drones. Small drones (2-25 kg) have been used widely in various applications, such as law enforcement, digital agriculture, fire monitoring and prevention, and geospatial surveying/mapping. These drone users often require long flight times to address tasks that cannot be completed by battery-powered small drones. The proposed micro gas turbine technology may increase the flight duration of small drones from 20 minutes to over 2 hours, which may significantly increase the practicability of using small drones in many applications. In addition, the proposed micro gas turbines do not require a mobile fuel-based electric generator, which avoids the fire hazard from liquid fuel storage. Furthermore, the micro gas turbine is capable of working in harsh environments, such as at high and low temperatures and in humid areas, where batteries often fail. Overall, the technology under development may enable commercialization of applications that will benefit from longer flying duration drones or compact power generation in remote fields. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a micro gas turbine technology to allow small drone users to extend flight endurance by replacing battery power with a compact turbine-based hybrid energy supply system. The proposed system has been found to be fuel-efficient, lighter, and save service time/cost. The proposed technology may increase the flight time of small drones by a factor of four at 1 kg system weight when compared to the most advanced lithium polymer batteries. The micro gas engine uses a unique engine architecture, advanced materials, and additive manufacturing techniques to ensure a reliable onboard power generation system. In addition, the proposed engine utilizes compressed high-pressure hydrogen as fuel, which has a high energy density and zero carbon emissions. Hydrogen is pre-heated after passing through the combustor wall, then mixed with compressed air and burned in a premixed combustion mode through high-temperature porous media. The proposed micro gas turbine engine may significantly advance design and fabrication technologies in small and portable power conversion devices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发小型无人机的氢燃料微型燃气轮机。小型无人机（2-25公斤）已在各种应用中广泛使用，例如执法，数字农业，消防监测和预防以及地理空间测量/映射。这些无人机用户通常需要长时间的飞行时间来解决由电池供电的小型无人机无法完成的任务。提出的微型燃气轮机技术可能会将小型无人机的飞行持续时间从20分钟增加到2个小时以上，这可能会大大增加在许多应用中使用小型无人机的实用性。此外，拟议的微型燃气轮机不需要移动燃料的发电机，从而避免了液体燃料储存的火灾危害。此外，微型燃气轮机能够在恶劣的环境中工作，例如在高温和低温下以及电池经常发生故障的潮湿区域。总体而言，正在开发的技术可以实现应用程序的商业化，这些应用程序将受益于较长的飞行持续时间无人机或紧凑型发电的应用。该I-Corps项目基于微型燃气轮机技术的开发，可让小型无人机用户通过使用基于紧凑的涡轮机的混合能源供应系统替换电池电量来扩展飞行耐力。已发现该拟议的系统是燃油效率，更轻的，并且节省了服务时间/成本。与最先进的锂聚合物电池相比，该技术可能会在1千克系统重量下将小型无人机的飞行时间增加4倍。微型燃气发动机使用独特的发动机架构，高级材料和添加剂制造技术来确保可靠的车载发电系统。此外，提出的发动机还利用压缩的高压氢作为燃料，其具有高能量密度和零碳的排放。氢在穿过燃烧室壁后会预热，然后与压缩空气混合，并通过高温多孔培养基在预混合的燃烧模式下燃烧。拟议的微型燃气轮机发动机可能会在小型和便携式功率转换设备中显着提高设计和制造技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准，认为值得通过评估来获得支持。