Hybrid Electric Engines For Jets: Hybrid cars are common on the roads in efforts to decrease the carbon footprint, but decarbonizing the aerospace industry is considered much more difficult. Developing more fuel-efficient engines to cut emissions is a big challenge for the aviation industry. However, replacing a regular jet engine with a hybrid electric jet engine could help but such technologies are still unproven in the aerospace industry, making decarbonization a formidable challenge, which generates about 2% of global emissions.
GE Aerospace, headquartered in Evendale, Ohio (USA), is developing a hybrid electric engine aimed at powering the next generation of narrow-body jets by the mid-2030s. Although the technology is currently under testing, GE's success could lead to the creation of hybrid-engine aircraft, significantly reducing the aviation sector's global carbon emissions, with single-aisle jets accounting for half of the emission.
In hybrid engines, an aircraft uses several energy sources while in flight. Airbus (another company working on a hybrid electric jet engine) estimates the mix of energy sources - jet fuel or sustainable aviation fuels combined with electricity – reduces fuel consumption by up to 5% compared to a standard flight.
GE Aerospace is working with NASA on a project that will embed electric motors or generators in a high-bypass turbofan to supplement power during different phases of operation, company executives said. On Wednesday, the company said it has completed the initial tests of the hybrid components and a baseline test of the engine. It next plans to test the components and the engine together.
In partnership with France's Safran, GE is testing the building blocks for an open-bladed jet engine for the next generation of medium-haul jets that will be able to reduce fuel use and emissions by 20% from the middle of the next decade.
GE's rival RTX is also working on a hybrid-electric technology demonstrator that combines a thermal engine with an electric motor, with a goal to improve fuel efficiency by 30%.
