easyJet aircraft are pictured at Southend Airport in July 2020. Several quarters there is excitement about hydrogen planes and their potential.
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Giant aerospace Rolls royce car said on Tuesday it was pairing with the airline easyJet to develop and test hydrogen combustion engine technology for aircraft.
In a statement, London-listed Rolls-Royce said the two companies will work together on a series of ground tests that are expected to begin this year. Both companies have a “common ambition to put technology in the air,” it added. easyJet has made a similar statement about the partnership on its website.
Rolls-Royce said the goal of the partnership, called H2ZERO, “is to demonstrate that hydrogen has the potential to power a range of aircraft from the mid-2030s onwards”.
According to the company – not to be confused with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, owned by BMW car – the companies will conduct an “initial concept test” of Rolls-Royce engines using hydrogen technology in the UK this year.
A full-scale ground test of the technology using the Pearl 15 jet engine will continue from there, with Mississippi being considered a potential site. Tuesday’s announcement follows a statement on Monday in which Rolls-Royce outlined its plans for ground tests.
“The technology emerging from this program has the potential to power easyJet-sized planes, which is why we will also be investing millions of pounds in the program,” said Johan Lundgren, CEO of the company. easyJet, said.
Lundgren added: “To achieve large-scale decarbonisation, progress in developing zero-emissions technology for narrow-body aircraft is crucial.
Using hydrogen to power an internal combustion engine is different from hydrogen fuel cell technology, in which gas from a storage tank mixes with oxygen, generating electricity.
As the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center notes, fuel cell vehicles “exhale only steam and warm air.”
In contrast, ICE hydrogen can produce other emissions. “Hydrogen engines release near-zero, small amounts of CO2 … but can produce nitrous oxide, or NOx,” Cumminsan engine manufacturer, speak.
The environmental impact of the aviation industry is substantial, with the World Wildlife Fund describing it as “one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions leading to global climate change.”
WWF also says air travel “is currently the most carbon-intensive activity an individual can undertake.”
Earlier this year, Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbustold CNBC that the airline will “likely to face significant obstacles if we don’t manage to decarbonize at the appropriate rate.”
Faury added that hydrogen planes represent the “final solution” for the medium to long term. In May, his company announced that they would be launching a The UK-based facility focuses on hydrogen technology.
While there is excitement in some quarters about hydrogen planes and their potential, a huge amount of work needs to be done to commercialize the technology and deploy it on a large scale.
Speaking to CNBC last October, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary be cautious when it comes to prospects for new and emerging technologies in the field.
“I think … we should be honest again,” he said. “Definitely, in the next decade… I don’t think you’ll see any – there’s no technology out there that can replace… carbon, jet aviation.”
“I don’t see the emergence of… hydrogen fuel, I do not see the emergence of sustainable fuels, I do not see the emergence of electric propulsion systems, certainly not before 2030,” said O’Leary said more.
