The first hydrogen-powered aircraft engine with Spanish technology will start in 2025

Jaime Fernández Castañeda, Director of Technology Development and Research at ITP Aero.ITP Aero

A consortium of Spanish companies, led by the aeronautics company ITP Aero, has begun development of the first hydrogen-powered aircraft engine with exclusively national technology.

The forecast is that the first tests can be carried out by mid-2025. The project, with an investment of 12 million euros and the participation of firms such as Destinius, Ajusa and Aerotecnic, forms part of the Aeronautical Technology Plan, managed by the Center for Technological Development and Innovation of Spain (CDTI).

This is one more step in the race towards the decarbonisation of air transport, in line with the United Nations' ambitious goal of achieving zero polluting emissions from international flight operations by 2050. "We want to be part of the solution", tells EL PAÍS Jaime Fernández Castañeda,

Director of Technology Development at ITP Aero, by videoconference.

“We have to be protagonists of the sustainability of the aeronautical sector.

We are facing a great technological milestone ”, he adds.

The project sponsored by the CDTI, called "Cryogenics, Batteries and Hydrogen Combustion in Air Transport", includes four lines of research, among which the modification of an existing aircraft engine so that it can operate exclusively with hydrogen stands out.

Its operation with natural gas will first be tested, before adapting it to work with the chemical element.

The consortium is going to design a new test bench suitable for testing hydrogen-powered aviation engines at the facilities of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid).

The tests must be carried out outdoors to avoid the risks involved in the use of hydrogen in closed spaces.

In parallel, explains Fernández Castañeda, the technological development will be carried out that will allow the transformation of liquid hydrogen into a gas and its regulation to use it in a gas turbine.

“We will have to handle cryogenized hydrogen.

Space shuttle launchers are loaded with liquid hydrogen, but they burn it up very quickly.

In aviation, this is not possible because the space to store it is less and it is consumed in a more regulated way”, indicates the ITP Aero aeronautical engineer.

The challenge will consist of finding the appropriate technological components to condition liquid hydrogen at 250 degrees Celsius below zero and turn it into a gaseous state to be able to inject it into the engine.

The plan is to develop lightweight heat exchangers that perform this function.

The use of hydrogen as a primary energy source in aircraft is the best option as a clean alternative to the polluting kerosene now used by planes.

Aviation is responsible for almost 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Airbus has set itself the goal of making a hydrogen-powered device fly for commercial use in 2035. The European multinational is already carrying out tests along these lines, as is also the case with the steps that Rolls-Royce is taking to achieve engines powered by this element. chemical.

The particularity of hydrogen is the large volume it occupies.

In a gaseous state (at 700 bar pressure), a space 10 times larger than that of a tank with kerosene would be required.

“They wouldn't fit on a plane,” says Fernández Castañeda.

If it's liquid (at -250 degrees), it still takes up four times as much, but has the advantage of weighing a third less with the same amount of energy.

It is not possible to house it in the wings of the plane and its use requires modifying the passenger corridor to install the hydrogen tank.

The project, still in its infancy, includes basic research on the combustion of hydrogen.

In this part, Fernández Castañeda points out, "a very simple burner" is going to be designed to understand how hydrogen behaves during combustion.

Another of the pillars will consist of developing a propulsion system using a fuel cell to generate electricity.

Hydrogen-powered aircraft prototype. On loan

ITP Aero is the leader in the aeronautical industry in Spain and ninth worldwide.

More than half of the double-aisle planes that cross the skies have turbines of their manufacture.

For this technological project, it has partnered with Destinius companies, a

that has developed a supersonic transport aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen;

Ajusa, specialized in fuel cell applications, and Aerotecnic, experts in the manufacture of aeronautical systems and structures.

These companies have the support of technology centers and universities, as well as INTA and the National Hydrogen Center.

A total of thirty people will take part.

Participation in this technological adventure, predicts the ITP Aero engineer, will mean “taking positions in the market that will open up with the manufacture of hydrogen turbines.

There are studies that say that hydrogen-powered engines like the one being developed by Airbus can reach market shares of 18% in the future.

The second impact of the project is the “tractor effect” that will be achieved with the creation of facilities at INTA capable of testing hydrogen engines: “This is a clear example of successful public-private collaboration.

This test bench, unique in Europe, will not only position ITP Aero as the only European company with this type of capabilities, but will also enable INTA to carry out its own projects on the test bench,

The work schedule calls for beginning the design of the test bench throughout 2023 and preparing its assembly during the coming year, in such a way that "the forecast is to start the engine and put it into operation with hydrogen in the middle of 2025".

The resulting engine is intended for short-medium range aircraft (Airbus A320 type), because long-haul, double-aisle aircraft would require such a quantity of fuel that it would not be possible to store it in the aircraft and its aerodynamics would not be efficient.

These large devices should always opt for the SAF sustainable fuel solution.

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