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from the the-Hindenberg-steam-engine-crossbreed dept.
‘They said we were eccentrics’: the UK team developing clean aviation fuel:
“Anyone passing would have wondered why these people were staring at a pipe and whooping and laughing,” says Bobby Sethi, associate professor of gas turbine combustion at Cranfield University. “But we were almost certainly the only people in the world right then burning anything without producing CO2.”
[...] “We were able to demonstrate successful ignition and safe combustion of pure hydrogen and air at high temperature and pressure – producing no carbon emissions,” he says. Even if, he adds, the passing layperson would have only seen a pipe and some steam.
[...] Sethi recalls the scepticism of even five years ago, when he was pursuing funding for the hydrogen research project, known as Enable H2: “They said we were eccentrics. Now they’re queueing up to be on our advisory board.”
There are broadly three strands of work that the aviation industry is frantically investigating for an environmentally acceptable future. One is to create greener fuels for the large aircraft currently in service. A second is electric flight, which appears feasible for smaller aircraft and short-haul hops. And a third is hydrogen.
Two projects pioneered at Cranfield are using hydrogen in the form of fuel cells to power electric motors and propel planes: ZeroAvia flew a six-seater from here last September, and hopes to scale up the technology for commercial short-haul flights in the coming decades. Another, Project Fresson, is planning to use fuel cells for a green, short-hop passenger service around the Orkney islands as soon as 2023.
But the ambitions for direct combustion of hydrogen are on a bigger scale; whether a radically different plane and propulsion system could replace the modern, paraffin-fuelled passenger jet. Which is where Sethi’s research comes in.
Nothing yet in the sheds looks anything like a plane. The rig here is a unique facility, Sethi says, assembled to show that hydrogen can be clean, safe and efficient for aviation, and produce data showing the optimum temperature and pressure to minimise other harmful emissions such as nitrogen oxides or NOx, a family of highly poisonous gases.
Not the only scientists looking for controlled ignition of hydrogen. What's described still seems a long way away from something that produces thrust, which is the ultimate need. However, technology usually advances in small steps, and that's fine as long as there's an ultimately reachable goal.
(Score: 3, Informative) by SparkyGSX on Thursday August 19 2021, @09:55PM (5 children)
It's even worse than that; cryogenic storage doesn't work for hydrogen, so you need large, heavy tanks with insane pressures (up to 1200 bar) to store a disappointing amount of hydrogen.
Combustion of hydrogen isn't exactly new, the university I used to work at did that 8 years ago in a slightly modified car.
Also where would this "green" hydrogen come from? There is no such thing as "excess renewable energy". Industrial hydrogen is made from natural gas, which produces more CO2 than burning the gas directly, since the energy in the carbon is lost, and the hydrogen needs to be compressed to thosr
If you do what you did, you'll get what you got
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 19 2021, @10:11PM
Yes there is. It can exceed demand and storage. So they use it for hydrogen electrolysis.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 19 2021, @10:12PM (3 children)
Cryogenic storage works just fine for hydrogen, it just needs to be kept at around 20°K, colder than any other cryogen but helium. Keeping it that cold simply requires venting the excess gas, which is a highly flammable, explosive pollutant that is cold enough to freeze nitrogen. Everything else you've said is true.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday August 20 2021, @05:40AM (2 children)
Your credibility absolutely just plummetted below zero.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @06:33AM (1 child)
I made a typographical mistake. Did I commit any factual errors?
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:20PM
In absolute terms, no.