Quarterly programme meeting: Making Hydrogen Work in Zero-Carbon Jet Engines

On a stormy December morning the UK-EPSRC programme “Making Hydrogen Work in Zero-Carbon Jet Engines” convened its quarterly meeting, chaired by Professor Peter Ireland of the Oxford Thermofluids Institute. The meeting was hosted by Loughborough University, with thanks to Prof Jon Carrotte and Dr Ashley van Bruygom.

Updates highlighted strong progress across the programme. Experimental teams reported advances in setting up cryogenic test facilities to study liquid hydrogen behaviour, heat transfer and pressurisation under engine-relevant conditions. Modelling work is providing early insights into hydrogen combustion behaviour, injector cooling and emissions characteristics, helping to guide experimental priorities. Parallel efforts on materials and thermal management are addressing the challenges posed by extreme temperature gradients associated with hydrogen fuel systems. These discussions underlined the value of the programme’s highly collaborative structure, which brings together a wide range of backgrounds and specialist expertise. This diversity is a key strength of the grant, enabling the team to tackle complex challenges from multiple perspectives and to maximise the impact of the research.

A highlight of the meeting was the visit to Loughborough’s NCCAT facility, which provided an impressive demonstration of the experimental capabilities available to support advanced aerospace and thermal systems research.

Prof Ireland: "I would like to thank Jon Carrotte and Ashley Van Buygom for their generous hospitality at Loughborough University. The opportunity to visit the NCCAT facilities and benefit from their technical insight was extremely valuable, and highlighted the strength of the experimental capability available within the collaboration.”