Cryogenic reactant storage for lunar base regenerative fuel cells
There are major advantages to be gained by integrating a cryogenic reactant storage system with a hydrogen-oxygen regenerative fuel cell (RFC) to provide on-site electrical power during the lunar night. Although applicable to any power system using hydrogen-oxygen RFC's for energy storage, cryogenic reactant storage offers a significant benefit whenever the sun/shade cycle and energy storage period approach hundreds of hours. For solar power installations on the moon, cryogenic reactant storage reduces overall specific mass and meteoroid vulnerability of the system. In addition, it offers synergistic benefits to on-site users, such as availability of primary fuel cell reactants for surface rover vehicles and cryogenic propellants for OTV's. The integration involves processing and storing the RFC reactant streams as cryogenic liquids rather than pressurized gases, so that reactant containment (tankage per unit mass of reactants) can be greatly reduced. Hydrogen-oxygen alkaline RFC's, GaAs photovoltaic (PV) arrays, and space cryogenic processing/refrigeration technologies are assumed to be available for the conceptual system design. Advantages are demonstrated by comparing the characteristics of two power system concepts: a conventional lunar surface PV/RFC power system using pressurized gas storage in SOA filament wound pressure vessels and, that same system with gas liquefaction and storage replacing the pressurized storage. Comparisons are made at 20 and 250 kWe. Although cryogenic storage adds a processing plant (drying and liquefaction) to the system plus 30 percent more solar array to provide processing power, the approximate order of magnitude reduction in tankage mass, confirmed by this analysis, results in a reduction in overall total system mass of approximately 50 percent.
- Research Organization:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cleveland, OH (USA). Lewis Research Center
- OSTI ID:
- 5838479
- Report Number(s):
- N-89-21419; NASA-TM-101980; E-4679; NAS-1.15:101980; CONF-8906169-
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International Astronautics Federation conference on space power, Cleveland, OH, USA, 5-7 Jun 1989
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
CRYOGENIC STORAGE DEVICES
ENERGY STORAGE
HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS
REGENERATIVE FUEL CELLS
DESIGN
ELECTRIC BATTERIES
MOON
SOLAR CELL ARRAYS
SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
FUEL CELLS
MEMORY DEVICES
POWER SUPPLIES
SATELLITES
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
STORAGE
250700* - Energy Storage- Liquified Gas- (-1989)
300000 - Direct Energy Conversion