easyJet plane pictured at Southend Airport in July 2020. There is excitement in some quarters about hydrogen planes and their potential.
Juan Keeble | Getty Images Noticias | Getty Images
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aerospace giant Rolls-Royce said on Tuesday it would partner with airline EasyJet to develop and test hydrogen-combustion engine technology for aircraft.
In a statement, London-listed Rolls-Royce said the two companies would work together on a series of ground tests scheduled to start this year. Both firms had “a shared ambition to take the technology to the air,” he added. easyJet posted the same statement about the partnership on its website.
The aim of the collaboration, dubbed H2ZERO, “is to demonstrate that hydrogen has the potential to power a range of aircraft from the mid-2030s onwards,” Rolls-Royce said.
According to the company, not to be confused with BMW-owned Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the firms will conduct an “early concept ground test” of a Rolls-Royce engine using hydrogen technology in the UK this year.
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A full-scale ground test of the technology will follow using a Pearl 15 jet engine, with Mississippi as a potential location. Tuesday’s announcement follows a statement on Monday in which Rolls-Royce outlined its plans for surface testing.
“The technology coming out of this program has the potential to power easyJet-sized aircraft, which is why we will also be making a multi-million dollar investment in this programme,” said easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren.
“To achieve decarbonization at scale, it is crucial to advance the development of zero-emission technology for narrow-body aircraft,” Lundgren added.
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Using hydrogen to power an internal combustion engine is different from hydrogen fuel cell technology, where gas from a tank is mixed with oxygen, producing electricity.
As the US Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center notes, fuel cell vehicles emit “only water vapor and hot air.”
Conversely, hydrogen ICEs can produce other emissions. “Hydrogen engines release almost zero, small amounts of CO2… but they can produce nitrogen oxides or NOx,” Cummins, an engine manufacturer, dice.
Aviation’s environmental footprint is considerable, with the World Wide Fund for Nature describing it as “one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change.”
WWF also says that air travel is “currently the most carbon-intensive activity an individual can undertake.”
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Earlier this year, Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus, told CNBC that aviation would “potentially face significant hurdles if we don’t manage to decarbonize at the right pace.”
Faury added that hydrogen planes represent the “definitive solution” in the medium and long term. In May, his company announced it would launch a UK facility focused on hydrogen technologies.
While there is excitement in some quarters about hydrogen aircraft and their potential, a considerable 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 was cautious about the prospects for new and emerging technologies in the sector.
“I think… we should be honest again,” he said. “Certainly over the next decade…I don’t think you’re going to see any, there’s no technology that’s going to replace…carbon, jet aviation.”
“I don’t see the arrival of…hydrogen fuels, I don’t see the arrival of sustainable fuels, I don’t see the arrival of electric propulsion systems, certainly not before 2030,” O’Leary added.
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