Two Ways to Haul 19 on H2

Dean Sigler Announcements, Electric Powerplants, Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Fuel, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Pipistel and Delft Technical University have introduced hydrogen (H2) powered, 19-seat airliners for the intermediate-range market.  Both are unique configurations with unique propulsion concepts.  Both attempt to lower drag through the use of their propulsive systems. Pipistrel Miniliner Pipistrel announced their Miniliner concept as a response to a “significant market potential” for a “zero-emission airplane in the 20-seat size class, capable of operating quietly from runways shorter than 1 [kilometer], including grass airstrips at small aerodromes.”  Seen as a disruptive element in providing service to currently unserved areas within a 200 to 1,000 kilometer (124 to 620 mile) range, the Miniliner could also serve as a microfeeder craft between small airports and large hubs. Although Pipistrel is somewhat mum about the internal and powerplant details for the craft, the propeller locations seem to indicate a major effort to reduce drag and eliminate wingtip vortices.  The tail, for instance, is very much what Bruce Carmichael, a proponent of laminar-flow designs, proposed …

Oxis Batteries to Fly in Two Airplanes

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

While we wait yet another five years for commercial development of each newly announced but promising battery chemistry, one company has its cells ready to fly in Bye Aerospace’s eFlyer 2 and in Texas Aircraft’s Colt S-LSA.  Oxis Energy has managed to leapfrog lithium-ion makers with its lithium-sulfur battery packs packing 400 Watt-hours per kilogram.  Considering the best announced pack-level li-ion performance has been 260 W-hr/kg, the leap is significant. Batteries, for now, are at the heart of electric aircraft.  Until Doc Brown’s Flux Capacitor or a hydrogen fuel cell with Dollar Tree refills comes along, batteries are battling it out for our airborne dollars.  Lithium-ion remains in the forefront, with Tesla staging its shareholders’ meeting and its long-anticipated “Battery Day” on September 22.  Elon Musk has been dangling the promise of a million-mile battery for the last year, which may tie in with Chinese manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).   According to Bloomberg, CATL’s, “Chairman and founder Zeng Yuqun said …

Euro/Israeli hybrid Powers Neat Italian ULM

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Great minds tend in the same directions.  Newton and Leibniz both came up with the calculus at roughly the same time, both goaded to develop a way to determine the orbit of Halley’s Comet.  So it’s no surprise that two different groups would come up with similar solutions to developing a backup hybrid system for light aircraft.  Within weeks of one another, Spain’s UC3M and Israel’s Ashot Ashkelon both unveiled add-on hybrid systems for Rotax engines. Aviation Week identifies the second team’s players in its report.  “An innovative hybrid propulsion system (HPS) for light aircraft – manned or unmanned – is being unveiled here at the Paris Air Show. The HPS was developed by an international consortium headed by Israel’s Ashot Ashkelon, Italian light aircraft developer CFM Air and Italian hybrid propulsion specialist Efesto.” Similar to the Madrid University’s design, Ashot Ashkelon’s system includes a new propeller shaft, a new gearbox developed by Ashot, a DC/AC power converter and controller, …

Commercially Viable (and Nearly Buyable) Australian Algae-Based Biofuel

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Both Aviation Week and Flight Global reported on Algaetec’s announcement at the ILA (Berlin Air Show) that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Lufthansa to provide algae-based jet fuel to the German carrier. Algae.Tec is an Australian maker of clear algae oil that pulls CO2 from industrial processes, combines it with sunlight, and produces large batches of odorless oil. The product achieves the “holy grail” of sustainability, according to Executive Chairman Roger Stroud, because it is made from non-food sources, unlike corn- or agave-based ethanol, for instance. It also uses CO2 that would otherwise be subject to expensive sequestration processes. The technology is proprietary and barely hinted at in the company’s videos, but is housed in 40-foot long shipping containers connected to solar arrays. CO2 and sunlight combine to produce a fuel stream in a compact production space. Aviation Week reports that, “The company’s process grows algae in a controlled environment in 40-ft shipping containers, feeding the algae …

Big Birds Flying Green Economy Class (Part Three): Environmental Politics or Revenue Source?

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Recent disputes among the many national and regional  players in the emerging biofuel/jet fuel markets may slow acceptance and  development of  hese promising alternatives to fossil fuels. The European Union’s emissions trading system (ETS) seems to be central to contentions by China and the United States.  The scheme would impose caps on carbon emissions from airlines flying into Europe, unleashing charges from China that the proposed rules discriminate against carriers from developing countries. A one cent per liter tax on jet fuel, part of the system, is at least partially responsible for the international dispute. According to Flight Global, “The airlines likely to be involved are the nation’s flag carrier Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, said an official from the China Air Transport Association.” America has weighed in with court challenges from American Airlines and United Continental, represented by the Air Transport Association (ATA), and Congress has added its voice, opposing what it perceives as European threats to American sovereignty and defending domestic jobs, which it …

Saving the Air While Saving Crops

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

AvWeb this morning reports on a “highly cost-effective” way to make jet biofuel from renewable materials.  According to AvWeb, San Francisco-based, “AliphaJet said its catalytic method uses materials derived from plants and animals such as triglycerides and fatty acids.  ‘Our strategy fundamentally improves the economics of making 100-percent drop-in renewable jet biofuel,’ said Jack Oswald, CEO of AliphaJet. ‘Our approach is radically different and unlocks a new industry that can meet the U.S. Navy’s goal of replacing 50 percent of its liquid fuels with renewables by 2020.’ “AliphaJet said its catalytic de-oxygenation process ‘significantly reduces capital and operating costs’ because it does not require the use of hydrogen in processing. That means the processing plant can be less complex, reducing capital costs. It also saves money because the biofuel can be produced close to the site of the raw materials, without the need to be close to a hydrogen source. The company says its process can also produce renewable drop-in …

Biofuels: Initiatives and Issues

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Reports from Germany, Switzerland, and America provide an insight into the problems that come with attempting to develop biofuel alternatives to jet fuel.  While various cooperative efforts are underway to promote expanded production of these “green” fuels, several parts of the industry are having problems of their own in making and distributing those fuels. Many of Germany’s biggest airlines, research groups and biofuel producers have banded together to promote” greater development and use of alternative fuels in the commercial aviation sector,” according to Flight Global.com. The resulting organization, the Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany (Aireg), includes Air Berlin, Condor, Lufthansa, the Munich Airport, MTU Aero Engines, Rolls-Royce Germany and EADS, a variety of universities and research institutions and fuel producers. Noting that, “This is the latest in a string of efforts across the globe to help move the production of sustainable aviation fuels from small quantities to commercially viable levels,” Aireg President Klaus Nittinger explained that although this …

Are Wind Turbines Bad for Aviation?

Dean Sigler Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

It would be a supreme irony if a part of environmentally-positive power production halted the possibility of “green” aviation by making it unsafe to be in the skies.  Luckily, this might not be the major problem some perceive, and solutions are in place or being developed.   For a brief time last April the United States Air Force held up construction of an eastern Oregon wind farm that will be the largest in America.  Concerned with the possible interference that 300 new giant wind turbines might cause for radar station transmissions in an otherwise remote part of the state, the Air Force stepped in.  That was a short-lived interruption, with Oregon’s Senators countering with concerns about the 706 jobs, $130 million in taxes to local counties over two decades and $2.7 million in royalty payments to farmers and ranchers that would be lost by shutting down the project, even though the Federal Aviation Administration issued a “notice of presumed hazard” that halted construction of towers …

Rising Oil Prices a “Wake-up Call”

Dean Sigler Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

With revolt and possible revolution threatening the shutdown of the Suez Canal and driving crude oil prices up, a recent article in Flight Global merits reflection. Flight Global’s lead sums up a threat and a hope in one tidy paragraph.  “The International Energy Agency raised an alarming note as our power-hungry lives got back into gear after the holidays.  ‘Oil prices are entering a dangerous zone for the global economy. The oil import bills are becoming a threat to the economic recovery. This is a wake-up call to the oil-consuming countries and to the oil producers,’ it said.” With fuel prices at the end of 2010 up one-fifth over those at the end of 2009, ticket prices necessarily follow, with the danger of lower passenger loads, fewer flights, and generally diminished convenience and economy for air travellers.    Some carriers such as RyanAir, already notorious for suggesting pay toilets on their airliners, tactically hedge by buying an oil company’s future reserves …