In view of the growing number of flights, HOPE aims to accelerate the reduction of emissions in conventional tube-and-wing aircraft through a multi-fuel system.
HOPE stands for Hydrogen Optimized Multi-fuel Propulsion System for Clean and Silent Aircraft and combines two multi-fuel Ultra-High Bypass Ratio (UHBR) turbofan engines, a Fuel Cell-based Auxiliary Propulsion and Power Unit (FC-APPU) and an aft-integrated Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI) propulsor. This way, pollutant and noise emissions are minimized during Landing and Take-Off (LTO) and air quality and noise pollution are reduced in and around airports, without a negative impact on emissions during cruise flights.
Converting existing tube-and-wing aircraft enables significant reductions of emissions in a relatively short time horizon compared to radical aircraft configurations. In addition, HOPE will help facilitate the aviation industry's energy transition by exploring and combining various environmentally friendly propulsion technologies with different levels of maturity.
Against this background
- an integrated propulsion system will be designed,
- a BLI propulsor will be combined with an FC-APPU for zero-emission taxi,
- a low-emission multi-fuel combustion technology will be developed and tested that burns hydrogen and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF),
- it will be assessed which social and environmental impacts as well as cost benefits result from the reduced noise and pollutant emissions of the HOPE technologies,
- a policy and guideline recommendation will be formulated for the introduction of HOPE technologies.
Bauhaus Luftfahrt is leading the overall design of the HOPE aircraft and the integration of the propulsion system.
In particular, it will contribute to the
- modeling of the entire aircraft,
- operational evaluation of the HOPE propulsion system,
- assessment of the Fuel Cell-based Auxiliary Propulsion and Power Unit (FC-APPU),
- assessment of air quality, noise pollution and social impact of the project,
- formulation and recommendation for policy makers to make informed decisions about the introduction of novel technologies such as HOPE.
The project is funded by the research and innovation program Horizon Europe
under GA n°101096275.
This work is co-funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK Government's Horizon Europe Funding Guarantee No. 10068673.