04:22 pm - Monday
Politecnico of Turin: tomorrow researchers will carry out tests on hydrogen in altitude
Turin, Italy - Used in the development of "Ecological" APU for aeronautics
(WAPA) - "The expedition of researchers from Environment Park and Politecnico of Turin will leave tomorrow, Tuesday August 28th from Gressoney la Trinité (Aosta) to the 4556 mt. of Punta Gnifetti, on Monte Rose, for carrying out a series of tests on hydrogen in the labs of Capanna Margherita, the highest shelter in Europe.
An experiment at over 4,000 meters to appraise the performances of a hydrogen electric generator realized by Environment Park and reshaped by the Departments of Aeronautical and Space Engineering and Energetics of Turin's Politecnico, to be used as power generation unit (Auxiliary Power Unit - APU) on the ultralight aircraft Pelican, provided by Digisky. The APU will the be installed on board the Pelican, equipped with a data acquisition system, and will be directly connected to the aircraft's electric system; at last, Digisky's pilots will try it in flight to study its performances and reliability.
The generator can supply a maximum power of 1,500 Watts and will power the tools, avionics and all on-board systems of the aircraft. It's a hydrogen generation unit similar to that installed on Easyriders, the ecological mopeds realized by Environment Park, properly readapted for aeronautical needs by the research staff of the Politecnico. The different parts of the generation unit will be transported to the various route stopovers and on the top of Capanna Margherita by a helicopter.
The tests target is to classify the behaviour of the combustible cell in altitude, where air pressure is a little more than half the pressure at sea level and temperature and humidity are rather low. Researchers observed that rarefied air, like it happens over 3,500 meters of altitude, causes a general decrease of the electric generator's performances. The mission target's is to identify ideal conditions for the working of the generation unit in an extreme environment". (Avionews)
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Direttore Clara Moschini