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Rolls Royce conducts third test of hydrogen powered aircraft engine
In September, Rolls-Royce presented its AE 2100 test engine at an easyJet conference on the airline's roadmap to net zero aviation. Today the BBC has reported that Rolls-Royce, in partnership with easyJet, has commenced tests running the AE 2100 on hydrogen. (simpleflying.com) More...
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Back in the 80s I thought hydrogen fuel cells would be the future. We saw them tested in busses, transport trucks and even locomotives. The future looked good for hydrogen and then it faded and eventually vanished. Governments and climate activists should have jumped all over it but instead they wanted batteries in vehicles and ignored hydrogen as a fuel source. Sadly I expect the same to happen here, it’s not about viability or efficiency but popularity.
I briefly invested and lost money in Ballard in the late 90s but recent developments have been encouraging, especially in Europe, though there's an ongoing US project with an informative video on Youtube. Beyond fuel cell engines, hydrogen can be efficiently manufactured at site from solar and other renewable electricity generation as a storage medium, effectively eliminating the need for massive expensive, dirty-mined lithium, etc. battery storage. The US video proposes existing car and truck fleet operators and even ordinary gasoline stations could add direct atmospheric hydrogen extraction on site without need for tanker truck delivery a new distribution infrastructure.
The sheer volume hydrogen would take to get enough range to matter is going to make hydrogen-fueled aircraft difficult at best to be economic. You'll need wings the size of a Concorde seating less than 100 passengers to go a few hundred miles. I seriously doubt you'd want to go with liquid hydrogen just because of the insulation and icing problems alone, not to mention the material and ongoing inspection requirements to attempt to make this aircraft last more than a couple of hundred flights. In my opinion, this is going to be a gold-plated albatross.
Stan Meyers patented hydrogen production back in the 80's. Drove a vehicle from Ca. to NY on 22 gallons of water.
I hope everyone realizes that carbon fuels are never going to go away and the world will never be green unless we get rid of vehicles and go back to horse and buggy. Electric will need to disappear too, back to candles and lamp oils, firewood for cooking and heating. And lets not forget about the outhouse. But we all know none of this will ever happen...will it!!
Need to stop wasting money on the silly thought that the entire world is all of the sudden going to go green.
I hope everyone realizes that carbon fuels are never going to go away and the world will never be green unless we get rid of vehicles and go back to horse and buggy. Electric will need to disappear too, back to candles and lamp oils, firewood for cooking and heating. And lets not forget about the outhouse. But we all know none of this will ever happen...will it!!
Need to stop wasting money on the silly thought that the entire world is all of the sudden going to go green.
EXACTLY! They said it back in 1900 - a good horse & buggy will NEVER be replaced by those newfangled horseless carriages!
"The hydrogen used in the Rolls-Royce AE 2100 is of the green variety produced at the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkney Islands of Scotland."
So, made using Wave/Wind = Green.
They doesn't say where the RR Tests were, but probably not the Scottish Islands or anywhere near by, which would mean transport of the H2 by Diesel powered boats and lorries, (electric versions exist, but were not mentioned, they would be if they were going for maximum green credentials).
Anyway, this is just a test.
The conundrum here is that to create a full Green infrastructure and supply chain there would be great expense that would take quite while to recoup, and huge amounts of Carbon expended in it's construction, if not it's operation.
And that doesn't include the massive task of producing new-gen aircraft with cryogenic fuel systems.
But you can't knock them for trying, gotts start somewhere.
Personally, I think at least in the near term, SAF may be the way forward.
Production can be progressively ramped up, and demand may well increase as the same product can also be substituted in land and sea transport, all making use of legacy infrastructure and vehicles, planes, boats, trains and trucks, all requiring much less adaption than a switch to a H2 economy.
So, made using Wave/Wind = Green.
They doesn't say where the RR Tests were, but probably not the Scottish Islands or anywhere near by, which would mean transport of the H2 by Diesel powered boats and lorries, (electric versions exist, but were not mentioned, they would be if they were going for maximum green credentials).
Anyway, this is just a test.
The conundrum here is that to create a full Green infrastructure and supply chain there would be great expense that would take quite while to recoup, and huge amounts of Carbon expended in it's construction, if not it's operation.
And that doesn't include the massive task of producing new-gen aircraft with cryogenic fuel systems.
But you can't knock them for trying, gotts start somewhere.
Personally, I think at least in the near term, SAF may be the way forward.
Production can be progressively ramped up, and demand may well increase as the same product can also be substituted in land and sea transport, all making use of legacy infrastructure and vehicles, planes, boats, trains and trucks, all requiring much less adaption than a switch to a H2 economy.
Back in the 80s the City of Vancouver purchased busses that used Hydrogen Fuel Cells. It was a big step and I thought that within a few decades fuel cells would be used across Canada and the USA. But reality got in the way and a lack of infrastructure and interest by governments killed the whole idea of fuel cells in the land transportation industry.
Sadly the same will likely happen in the aviation industry. Governments want EVs and batteries in aircraft so no matter how inefficient they are that is the direction we are going.
Sadly the same will likely happen in the aviation industry. Governments want EVs and batteries in aircraft so no matter how inefficient they are that is the direction we are going.
