U.K. ENGINEERS PURSUE ‘GUILT-FREE’ AIR TRAVEL.
U.K. developing emissions-free technology
LONDON • Travellers may be able to enjoy guilt-free “green” holidays within years thanks to eco-friendly airplane technology being developed in Oxford, England.
Reaction Engines has begun work on systems that will turn existing commercial aircraft “emission-free” by allowing them to run on ammonia rather than kerosene.
Ammonia, which is different from ammonium nitrate, would be safer than traditional kerosene because it is harder to burn and so less of a fire hazard, the researchers said. When it does burn, it does so without CO2 emissions.
The way the system works is that ammonia could be fed in and split into hydrogen and nitrogen, with the former burned to fuel the jet.
James Barth, the engineer behind the project, says a key benefit of using ammonia is that it could be stored in a plane’s wings. This would mean commercial
IT IS BECOMING CLEAR THERE IS GOING TO BE A REAL TECHNOLOGY DRIVE.
airlines would only have to adapt their existing fleet, rather than redesign models, and it would not mean higher airfares.
“There’s no reason why we couldn’t have a small-scale demonstrator ready to test in a matter of years,” Barth said.
There has been a wave of trials of battery-powered planes, with such companies as Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Siemens looking into such projects.
But experts say the range of electric planes would be severely limited. Ammonia-fuelled planes would be able to handle most shorthaul flights, although the range is still less than that of existing planes.
The project is taking place at the Harwell Campus in Oxford, funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, a British government agency.
There has been a major push for the U.K. to cut carbon emissions, and last year Britain, like Canada, pledged to have net zero emissions by 2050.
Mark Thomas, Reaction’s chief executive, said the pandemic could help in the push toward green travel. “We’ve been living under clean skies for the past few months,” he said.
“It is becoming clear there is going to be a real technology drive.”
In France, bailout funding for aerospace industries has been linked to emissions targets.