The hydrogen engine test centre at NASA’s Stennis Space Centre will be Rolls-Royce’s third test stand at the site. Credit: easyJet/Rolls-Royce

Aerospace giant Rolls-Royce has expanded its work on hydrogen propulsion solutions for the aviation industry with a new partnership with part of India’s largest conglomerate Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and the beginning of construction on an engine testing site at a NASA Space Centre in Mississippi. 

The manufacturer has been working on a hydrogen-fuelled engine for years, in collaboration with low-cost airline easyJet, and has now also expanded its work with TCS to continue its research into the gas as a zero-carbon fuel. 

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Alan Newby, director of research and technology at Rolls-Royce, said: “We welcome TCS to our hydrogen research programme and their engineering skills will play a valuable role in addressing our technology goals. 

“We’ve already made great progress and having TCS with us gives us additional capability as we move forward on our journey to enable the energy transition for the aviation sector.” 

The partnership with TCS will also see the company provide additional engineering expertise for the easyJet testing programme, which has been developing a modified Pearl 15 engine to run on 100% hydrogen. 

As part of this, the test site in the US will be used to perform outdoor, full-scale gas turbine hydrogen testing as Rolls-Royce expands the programme, which saw the company run an engine on hydrogen fuel in take-off conditions for the first time last year. 

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David Morgan, easyJet’s COO, said: “It’s a truly remarkable feat to – in just a few short years – go from conceptual design stage to full engine testing with 100% hydrogen, helping take us a step closer to our vision of operating zero-carbon hydrogen-powered aircraft technology in the years to come.” 

The test stand will add to Rolls-Royce’s existing presence at the NASA Stennis Space Centre and forms part of the company’s wider technology strategy, which also includes research into sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and electric propulsion systems. 

The developments in Rolls-Royce’s research come shortly after a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) called for the acceleration of research into zero-emission aircraft if the industry was to reach its goal of achieving net zero by 2050. 

The ICCT said that if the industry was to stay on track to reach net zero, it would need to move to solely producing zero-emission aircraft by 2035, when most companies are only currently expecting to produce the first few hydrogen-powered planes.