The project will see designers and engineers from Loughborough University’s National Centre for Combustion and Aerothermal Technology (NCCAT) working with UK firm Bladon Micro Turbine, a developer of micro turbine gensets (MTGs) with its engineering and assembly centre based in Warwick.
According to Bladon, its MTGs are fuel flexible and can run on diesel, kerosene, paraffin and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). Working with NCAAT, Bladon will now adapt the modular design of its genset to incorporate the use of hydrogen.
“Our micro turbine generators are clean now and they’re going to be zero carbon” said Bladon’s chief commercial officer Yvette Henshall-Bell.
“The micro turbine generator is already a truly innovative game-changer and through our work with Loughborough University we will have a hydrogen demonstrator to show our customers later in 2022.”
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Opened in 2020, the NCCAT was established to act as a primary hub for R&D into future low emission aero gas turbine combustion technologies, including traditional fuels and emerging fuel sources such as hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel.
According to the government supported organisation, its facilities allow for low emission combustion technology to be designed, modelled, and experimentally simulated, enabling timescales for design iterations to be shortened and budgets to be compressed.
“NCCAT is designed to help the UK meet the net zero carbon challenge across several key areas in the UK,” said Emma Callaghan, business manager at NCCAT.
“We are absolutely delighted to be working in partnership with Bladon...to realise their commercial goal of producing a micro turbine hydrogen demonstrator in 2022.”
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I do hope this doesn't cause costs to UK aviation to rise and lose business to those staying on fossil fuels.