Improving the climate impact of aircraft operations

Overview

The aviation industry is currently facing an array of challenges that will require innovative solutions and widespread adoption in order to meaningfully address them.

These challenges are likely to affect a broad range of sectors, with environmental concerns being the most pressing. For example, the projected growth of air traffic in the coming years will likely increase the fuel combustion and acoustic emissions of short to medium haul aircrafts, thereby worsening aviation’s overall environmental footprint.

Having first launched in February 2023, The HOPE project aims to investigate and develop transformative technologies to combat these obstacles, focusing specifically on-air quality, noise and climate impact.

There are six organisations involved in this four-year HOPE project consortium, bringing together senior and early-career researchers as well as PhD students.

The project will deliver an innovative aircraft concept featuring a conventional tube-and-wing design that allows for near-term entry-into-service. It is hoped that this proposed solution will eventually be adopted by OEMs, laying the groundwork for further research and development.

Developing aircraft technologies with Horizon Europe

One of the six HOPE project’s consortium members is Manchester Metropolitan University. The Sustainable Futures Aviation and Environment team is part of the university and has worked on various initiatives, including those funded by UKRI, Innovate UK and Horizon Europe.

Two researchers from this university team are providing the HOPE project with crucial environmental assessments of multi-fuel aircraft technologies, thanks to Horizon Europe’s funding. This money is being used to support staff salaries and gain access to essential computing resources.

“Horizon Europe’s programmes provide us with a wide range of expertise and networking opportunities,” said Ling Lim, a research fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University. “We have an exceptionally supportive advisory board composed of industry experts, regulators and policymakers who give valuable insight and technical guidance.”

“The funding has allowed us to continue our work as planned. We’ve been invited to participate in joint workshops and present at special project sessions at international conferences, increasing the visibility of our work and fostering connections with other researchers and stakeholders”, explained Ling.

These new connections have proven to be invaluable for the team at the university. “Our experience with Horizon Europe has been incredibly positive,” said Ling. “The consortium works exceptionally well together, with members being highly supportive of one another’s work.”

Creating an innovative aircraft concept to minimise impact

The HOPE project’s aircraft concept is complex but is designed to tackle many of the future hurdles that the aviation industry faces.

“The design has multi-fuel propulsion capabilities that allow for operations to run with kerosene, sustainable aviation fuels or hydrogen, making it flexible enough to adapt to varying fuel availability, costs and infrastructure at different airports,” explained Ling.

“This practicality ensures the design can effectively address critical environments while remaining viable for widespread adoption.”

“In addition, the aircraft will incorporate other innovative technologies such as a fuel-cell-based auxiliary propulsion and power unit, which provides electrical power independently from the main engines,” Ling said. “It will also include a boundary layer ingestion propulsor, which reduces drag and enhances main engine efficiency.”

These concepts are still in the development phase (with two more years remain on the project). So far, the baseline aircraft design has been completed and will serve as the basis of the multi-fuel aircraft.

Manchester Metropolitan University will also be creating a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) roadmap for the HOPE project. They’ll also be providing recommendations to encourage OEMs to consider these concepts for widespread manufacture.

“I have found participating in these projects to be incredibly rewarding,” said Ling. “I look forward to more opportunities to contribute and benefit from such initiatives in the future.”

About the funding

The HOPE project is set to run until January 2027 and is being funded by Horizon Europe with the allocated budget of €3.4M. This project aims to help minimise the combustion and noise emissions during landing and take-off of flights, whilst progressing into green propulsion technologies at different maturity levels.

Call Topic: Hydrogen Optimized multi-fuel Propulsion system for clean and silent aircraft

Project Coordinator: Technische Universiteit Delft, Netherlands.

To find out more, visit https://hope-eu-project.eu/. You can also visit the Horizon Europe website for more information.

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