Rolls-Royce Successfully Tests Its First Hydrogen-Powered Jet Engine and It’s Insanely Powerful!

Aviation is vital to the global economy, however it is also a dominant contributor of harmful greenhouse gasses. The world’s first hydrogen jet engine might help to solve that problem. As a result, there is considerable attention on hydrogen as a potential aviation fuel. While it does not have the energy density of kerosene, it is far more powerful than batteries and emits no emissions when burned.

Rolls-Royce and commercial airline easyJet have made the first move with the first-ever ground test of a hydrogen-powered jet engine. “The success of this hydrogen test is an exciting milestone,” Rolls-chief Royce’s technology officer, Grazia Vittadini, said in a statement. “We’re pushing the envelope to discover hydrogen’s zero-carbon possibilities, which could help reshape the future of flight.”The test used a converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100 engine and hydrogen produced by the European Marine Energy Centre on Scotland’s Orkney Islands using renewable tidal energy.

The breakthrough was hailed by the companies as a significant step toward decarbonizing the aviation sector. However, there is still a long journey to go before hydrogen will likely power a substantial number of aircraft. For starters, starting an engine on a ground-based test rig is not the same as using it to fly a plane.

While hydrogen has a higher energy density than batteries, an airplane would require nearly four times the amount of liquid hydrogen to travel the same distance as jet fuel. Furthermore, liquid hydrogen must be chilled to -253 degrees Celsius and preserved under pressure. This would necessitate much larger and more complicated fuel tanks and systems for delivering hydrogen to the engines, which would almost certainly necessitate completely redesigning planes. Despite these obstacles, easyJet believes that hydrogen may be the most realistic choice for decarbonizing aviation.

Even if these prototypes make it out of the lab, it’s unclear as to if there will be sufficient fuel to support aviation anytime soon, given the small amount of green hydrogen currently produced. Nonetheless, hydrogen has the potential to play a significant position in a greener future for aviation, and so any progress should be applauded.