Aviation Is on a Low-Carbon Flight Path

Re:Aviation Is on a Low-Carbon Flight Path by londons_explore on Thursday November 07, 2019 @02:52PM (#21476682)

Cogeneration isn't much use on a plane...

Granted a little heat for the cabin is handy, but the rest is largely useless.

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Re:Aviation Is on a Low-Carbon Flight Path by darksaints on Thursday November 07, 2019 @03:01PM (#21476765)

I meant in the context of energy conversion. Solid oxide fuel cells produce high grade heat (~800C) that is perfect for conversion via organic rankine cycles (which will convert ~30% of that heat to electricity) or supercritical co2 brayton cycles (~50% heat to electricity with extremely high power densities[0]).

Even without heat capture, SOFCs run at 60-65% efficiency, which is probably good enough.

[0] https://www.ge.com/reports/call-ecomagination-ge-building-co...

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