Rolls-Royce’s mainline business is manufacturing and maintaining jet engines.
Rolls-Royce has announced that it has tested an aircraft engine on hydrogen fuel in a bid to decarbonise air travel. The successful testing of hydrogen fuel for air travel is being seen as a breakthrough for the aviation industry.
The legendary British luxury carmaker launched the joint project with the airline easyJet and said that the ground test is a “major step towards proving that hydrogen could be a zero-carbon aviation fuel of the future”.
The company carried out the project at Boscombe Down, a British military facility in Wiltshire and used a converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100-A regional aircraft engine for the test. This engine is generally used to propel turboprop planes. While Rolls-Royce is popularly known for making world-class luxury cars, the company’s main business line is producing and maintaining jet engines.
The aviation industry is facing one of the most serious challenges of any industry to decarbonise as the world seeks to move to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. While cars and regular transportation is searching for an answer in battery-powered electric vehicles, the same couldn ‘t be applied to the aviation industry because of several limitations including current battery technology which is only favorable for shorter journeys.
Could hydrogen be the zero-carbon aviation fuel of the future?
Hydrogen as a fuel only emits water (H2o) when it burns, however, industry analysts are still contemplative about whether or not it could ever be viable for longer journeys. As per calculations by Michael Liebreich, the founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a Boeing 747 jumbo jet would need over 1m liters of hydrogen to fly a jet equivalent range of 250,000 liters of jet fuel.
Needless to say, this would probably require a complete redesign of fuel tanks and thus aircraft as fuel tanks of that size would also have to be kept at high pressure.
Green hydrogen for the latest test by Rolls-Royce and easyJet was supplied by the European Marine Energy Centre. Grazia Vittadini, the Rolls-Royce chief technology officer, said it was an “exciting milestone” and a “landmark achievement”.
“We are pushing the boundaries to discover the zero-carbon possibilities of hydrogen, which could help reshape the future of flight,” she said.
Grant Shapps, the UK business secretary, said in a statement: “The UK is leading the global shift to guilt-free flying, and today’s test by Rolls-Royce and easyJet is an exciting demonstration of how business innovation can transform the way we live our lives.”