The Emissions of Water Vapour and NOx from Modelled Hydrogen-Fuelled Aircraft and the Impact of NOx Reduction on Climate Compared with Kerosene-Fuelled Aircraft

M. A. H. Khan*, Joel Brierley, Kieran N Tait, Steve Bullock, Dudley E Shallcross, Mark H Lowenberg *

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)
315 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

A kerosene fuelled aircraft was modelled within a performance tool and fuel burn and the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and water vapour at different stages of flight throughout the mission were estimated. Adaptions were made to engine and aircraft parameters within the performance tool to accommodate a liquid hydrogen fuel over the same given mission. Once an iterative design process had been completed to ensure the aircraft could perform the given mission, the performance tool was again used to calculate total fuel burn. Fuel burn results alongside predicted emission indices were used to estimate the emissions of NOx, water vapour from hydrogen-fuelled aircraft. The use of hydrogen fuel over kerosene fuel in the modelled aircraft resulted in the removal of carbon-based emission species alongside 86% reduction in NOx and 4.3 times increase in water vapour emission. The climate impact of this switch with the reduction in NOx emission was assessed by a 3D global atmospheric chemistry and transport model, STOCHEM-CRI, which found a significant reduction in the concentration of a potent greenhouse gas, ozone, and an oxidizing agent, OH, by up to 6% and 25%, respectively. The reduction of OH levels could induce a positive radiative forcing effect as the lifetime of another important greenhouse gas, methane, is increased. However, the magnitude of this increase is very small (~0.3%), thus the overall impact of the reduction in NOx emissions is likely to have a net negative radiative forcing effect, improving aviation’s impact on the environment. However, further work is warranted on effects of other emission species, specifically water vapour, particulate matter and unburned hydrogen.
Original languageEnglish
Article number1660
Number of pages12
JournalAtmosphere
Volume13
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
M.A.H.K. and D.E.S. thank N.E.R.C. grant (A Scientist just like me) (grant reference-2021/EDIE011Shallcross), Bristol ChemLabS and the Primary Science Teaching Trust under whose auspices various aspects of this work was supported. © 2022 all rights reserved.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.

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