World first hydrogen flight by Rolls Royce and EasyJet
EasyJet and Rolls Royce have run a commercial aircraft on purely hydrogen, claiming a world first in such an achievement. And they hope that this can begin an era of plane travel decarbonation.
Rolls Royce Holdings in the UK is the world’s second largest maker of aircraft engines after the biggest General Motors in the US and revealed its net zero strategy in 2021.
Testing was performed at the UK Defence Ministry’s Boscombe Down aircraft testing site, using a converted Rolls Royce AE 2100 aircraft engine, and renewable hydrogen.
The new engine is to be considered somewhat of a prototype still in its infant stages of development, but the two companies are focused and committed to bring the reality to bear that hydrogen can be a safe and efficient zero carbon fuel for planes.
Carbon free hydrogen fuel from water
Instead of using Kerosene as normal, the engine will combust hydrogen that is produced sustainably and carbon free. Rolls Royce aircraft engine converted to run purely on hydrogen.
Rolls Royce chief technology officer Grazia Vittadini said of the developments: “The success of this hydrogen test is an exciting milestone. That will be a huge step forward in meeting the challenge of net zero by 2050.”
Also EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren added: “We are committed to continuing to support this ground breaking research because hydrogen offers great possibilities for a range of aircraft.”
The green hydrogen fuel was sourced from a sustainable energy source in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The European and Marine Energy Centre produced energy with the help of wind and tidal power alone.
That in turn was used to power an electrolyser to extract hydrogen from water using electrolysis.
In partnership with EasyJet for net zero
Hydrogen that is produced is then compressed to a pressure of 200 bar which equals around 200 times the pressure of the earth’s atmosphere. At this pressure it ensures that the maximum amount of hydrogen can be stored in the space the tank allows.
Further test will be carried out by the two companies to understand the suitability of such hydrogen fuel within the aviation industry. They are also planning future tests which will entail extensive and robust ground tests, before test flights are carried out.
Also at a later date Rolls Royce will bring in a Rolls Royce Pearl 15 jet engine, a more powerful counterpart to the AE 2100-A, hoping to also adapt this to run on hydrogen as well.
Both EasyJet and Rolls Royce are signatories of the U.N Race to Zero campaign, and aim to achieve net zero emissions of greenhouse gases, and carbon based fuel usage almost eliminated.
Alternative fuel type development in the aviation industry is a hot topic, and many companies and manufacturers invest time and money into sustainable and renewable alternative fuel sources.
Airlines currently contribute around 2.5% of the total CO2 emissions of worldwide. The green hydrogen is produced using fully renewable and sustainable resources.
And the hope is that it will see aircraft CO2 free, and in theory will only emit water as byproduct from their engine. It can be used in a number of ways, in liquid form or in the form of a fuel cell.
Response to critics
However, there are doubts regarding the feasibility of such hydrogen based commercial flights, as critics claim that it won’t be possible for planes to carry the large quantities of fuel on board.
The large amount of hydrogen in plane would be required for long haul journeys, and would possibly mean that they would need to be radically redesigned to support such operation.
ZeroAvia have already flown several smaller scale aircraft on hydrogen fuel alone. Airbus is also heavily investing and researching the technologies required to make this possible, and they already have three concept designs for aircrafts to be powered by liquid hydrogen.
Source: rolls-royce.com
