Christoph Gentner

Christoph Gentner works as a research group leader at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) within the Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics. He is also a lecturer specializing in energy storage systems and serves as the research roadmap leader for aviation at Hydrogen Europe. He obtained his PhD from the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH) in 2018, focusing on fuel cell system integration. His research primarily concentrates on developing lightweight and highly efficient fuel cell systems for aeronautical applications.

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Presentation

Enhancing PEM fuel cell system performance via alternative component integration

PEM fuel cell systems play a pivotal role in realizing the aviation industry's net zero goals. Currently, PEM fuel cell systems exhibit a gravimetric power index of approximately 1kW/kg. At the system level, stacks, electric motors and humidifiers are particularly responsible for this low index. The presentation will outline the anticipated changes in system performance (efficiency, gravimetric index, aircraft resistance) compared to a baseline system. Conventional components and subsystems will be replaced with alternative variants. This will provide an estimation of how the integration of unconventional components and subsystems could enhance the performance of PEM fuel cell systems in aviation.