Rolls-Royce has announced another key milestone in its hydrogen research project on the road to developing hydrogen combustion engine technology.
Working with Loughborough University in the UK and the German Aerospace Centre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR), tests on a full annular combustor of a Pearl 700 engine on 100% hydrogen has proven the fuel can be combusted at conditions that represent maximum take-off thrust.
The successful design of advanced fuel spray nozzles on the engine was critical to the achievement. The nozzles could control the flame position using a new system that mixes air with hydrogen to manage the fuel’s reactivity.
This world-first achievement now joins the successful run of the AE2100 modern aero engine, achieved last year at Boscombe Down, UK.
Grazia Vittadini, Chief Technology Officer at Rolls-Royce, said: “This is an incredible achievement in a short space of time. Controlling the combustion process is one of the key technology challenges the industry faces in making hydrogen a real aviation fuel of the future. We have achieved that, and it makes us eager to keep moving forward.”
Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet and Rolls-Royce’s partner in this hydrogen project, added: “We believe hydrogen is the future of short-haul aviation, and the success of this test and progress being made demonstrates that this is becoming ever closer.”
The technologies tested at Loughborough and DLR will now be incorporated into the learning from the Boscombe Down tests as Rolls-Royce and easyJet prepare for the next stage of testing – a full gas hydrogen ground test on a Pearl engine.
That will, in turn, lead to a full ground test on a Pearl engine using liquid hydrogen – both easyJet and Rolls-Royce have a shared ambition to then take the technology to flight.
