DEVELOPMENT ON-BOARD INERT GAS GENERATION SYSTEMS FOR MEDIUM-SIZED AND MEDIUM-RANGE AIRCRAFT
The DEGASS project presented by CESA was approved last December by the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI). This project for the “DEVELOPMENT ON-BOARD INERT GAS GENERATION SYSTEMS FOR MEDIUM-SIZED AND MEDIUM-RANGE AIRCRAFT” had previously received the Eureka! certification in July 2015.
CESA, whose prior experience in this type of systems was acquired via the CENIT-PROSAVE2 project that it led between 2011 and 2014, will carry out this new R&D project in cooperation with a Korean partner, the Energy&Machinery Korea company, which has broad experience in gas production and filtering systems.
The goal of the DEGASS project is to develop, based on the requirements of an OBIGGS system for a medium-sized aircraft (of the “single-aisle” type), a complete system that integrates all the inerting functions for fuel tanks (water separation, heat exchange, control of the entire system) around the membranes.
The efforts of both partners will focus on the need for a new development in the separation membranes to separate O2 and N2 from the air and the integration of the entire assembly. This development must allow reaching a high TRL (Technology Readiness Level) at the system level (i.e. TRL 7 or higher). The implementation of this concept in aircraft is a mandatory requirement, since not implementing such systems entails a risk of the fuel igniting under certain conditions of failure.
This project will last 3 years. During this time, CESA will hold the responsibility as the systems administrator and will be responsible of defining the requirements for each subset of the system and will perform the final assembly of the entire system and the aeronautic pre-qualification tests at their facilities in Getafe.
