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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Green Aviation: Review, Aspirations, and Operational Improvements

Air traffic affects the environment locally, regionally and globally. Estimates show that aviation is responsible for 13% of transportation-related fossil fuel consumption and 2% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Although there is considerable decline in air traffic due to COVID pandemic, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expects domestic air traffic to grow at an annual rate of 2.0 % over the next 20 years. Global air traffic is expected to grow more rapidly than domestic air traffic at an annual rate of 4.8% from 2011 to 2030. The desire to accommodate growing air traffic needs while limiting the impact of aviation on the environment has led to research in green aviation with the goals of better scientific understanding, utilization of alternative fuels, introduction of new aircraft technology, and rapid operational changes. Greenhouse gases, nitrogen oxides, and contrails generated by air traffic affect the climate in different and uncertain ways. Understanding the changes requires a hierarchy of models to deal with multiple disciplines, time scales ranging from few minutes to few hundred years and uncertainties in modeling parameters affecting both science and policy. This talk reviews earlier work at Ames on the modeling approach and an integrated capability to design aircraft operations based on a trade-off between fuel consumption, environmental goals and stakeholder values.

Green Aviation↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Future of Green Aviation

Dr. Edwards'presentation provides an overview of aviation's economic impact in the U.S. including aviation's impact on environment and energy. The presentation discusses NASA's contributions to the advancement of commercial aircraft design highlighting the technology drivers and recent technology advancements for addressing community noise, energy efficiency and emissions. The presentation concludes with a preview of some of NASA's integrated systems solutions, such as novel aircraft concepts and advancements in propulsion that will enable the future of more environmentally compatible aviation.

Edwards, Thomas↗
NASA NTRS2013

Aircraft Engine Technology for Green Aviation to Reduce Fuel Burn

The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program Subsonic Fixed Wing Project and Integrated Systems Research Program Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project in the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate are conducting research on advanced aircraft technology to address the environmental goals of reducing fuel burn, noise and NOx emissions for aircraft in 2020 and beyond. Both Projects, in collaborative partnerships with U.S. Industry, Academia, and other Government Agencies, have made significant progress toward reaching the N+2 (2020) and N+3 (beyond 2025) installed fuel burn goals by fundamental aircraft engine technology development, subscale component experimental investigations, full scale integrated systems validation testing, and development validation of state of the art computation design and analysis codes. Specific areas of propulsion technology research are discussed and progress to date.

Hughes, Christopher E.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Next Generation Transport Concepts and Enabling Technology Research at NASA

This presentation will make USC aerospace engineering students aware of recent NASA contributions to aeronautics. Those students will likely use this knowledge for new aircraft designs in their careers. Topics covered in this presentation include, Blended Wing Body design, N+2 aircraft, and green aviation.

green aviation↗
NASA NTRS2010

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Integrated Systems Research Program (ISRP) and UAS Integration in the NAS Project

Program Goal: Conduct research at an integrated system-level on promising concepts and technologies and explore, assess, or demonstrate the benefits in a relevant environment.Criteria for selection of projects for Integrated Systems Research: a) Technology has attained enough maturity in the foundational research program that they merit more in-depth evaluation at an integrated system level in a relevant environment. b) Technologies which systems analysis indicates have the most potential for contributing to the simultaneous attainment of goals. c) Technologies identified through stakeholder input as having potential for simultaneous attainment of goals. d) Research not being done by other government agencies and appropriate for NASA to conduct. e) Budget augmentation. Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project Explore and assess new vehicle concepts and enabling technologies through system-level experimentation to simultaneously reduce fuel burn, noise, and emissions Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project Contribute capabilities that reduce technical barriers related to the safety and operational challenges associated with enabling routine UAS access to the NAS Innovative Concepts for Green Aviation (ICGA) Project Spur innovation by offering research opportunities to the broader aeronautics community through peer-reviewed proposals, with a focus on making aviation more eco-friendly. Establish incentive prizes similar to the Centennial Challenges and sponsor innovation demonstrations of selected technologies that show promise of reducing aviation s impact on the environment

Wolfe, Jean↗
NASA NTRS2018

Integrated Computational-Experimental Development of Lithium-Air Batteries for Electric Aircraft

The primary obstacle to enable NASA's vision of Green Aviation is the extraordinary energy storage requirements for electric aircraft. Significant advances in high energy, rechargeable, safe batteries are required to enable electric aviation. Boeing's SUGAR and NASA studies have identified 400 Wh/kg as the threshold energy density for general aviation and 750 Wh/kg for commercial regional air service. State of the Art Lithium Ion Battery (LIB) technology currently has a density of 200 Wh/kg and is expected to plateau at 300 Wh/kg due to fundamental chemistry limitations making it unsuitable for future electric aircraft. Additional demanding requirements include high power, rechargeability, and high safety. Such battery technology does not currently exist. The recent considerable activity in battery research (DOE, Tesla Gigafactory, etc) overwhelmingly has been geared towards reducing cost and improving safety of LIB technology in order to promote the adoption of electric automobiles; and thus it is expected to have little impact on electric aviation development. New battery materials will be needed for the "Beyond Li Ion" (BLI) technologies required for high energy, safe electric aviation. Li-Air batteries have the highest known theoretical energy density (3400 Wh/kg) and therefore and if realized promises to transform the global transportation system. These high energy batteries have the potential to meet the energy storage challenges of current and future NASA aeronautics and space missions in addition to many terrestrial transportation applications as well. However, this technology requires significant components development and integration, as it is currently unable to achieve aircraft requirements. The objective of this project is to leverage modern computational materials methods combined with battery multiphysics tools to develop radically advanced compatible cathode and electrolyte materials, build several Li-Air cells, and flight-demonstrate the corresponding Li-Air battery packs. A significant problem for current Lithium-Air batteries is large scale decomposition of the battery electrolyte during operation leading to battery failure after a handful of charge/discharge cycles. Therefore, development of large scale, ultra-high energy, rechargeable, and safe Lithium-Air batteries require highly stable electrolytes that are resistant to decomposition under operating conditions. A NASA-based cross-organizational "dream team" of high-powered experts combined integrated supercomputer modeling, fundamental chemistry analysis, advanced material science, and battery cell development to tackle this very challenging, multidisciplinary problem. The ultimate goal for the team is to develop an integrated experimental/computational infrastructure to produce a reliable predictive capability for the selection of optimal components, their fabrication parameters, and "design rules" of novel cell components for advanced ultra-high energy batteries that can meet energy storage challenges of NASA missions and many terrestrial transportation applications.

Li-air battery↗
NASA NTRS2014

NASA Green Propulsion Technologies Pushing Aviation to New Heights

Center Director Free is providing the Keynote at the Disruptive Propulsion Conference, sponsored by Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England in November. Director Free will be presenting a PowerPoint presentation titled, NASA Green Propulsion Technologies Pushing Aviation to New Heights at both the conference and a meeting at the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Subsonic aeronautics research↗
NASA NTRS2023

Establishing a Pathway to Greener Aviation

The burning and production of jet fuel in both commercial and regional planes at a high volume releases extreme levels of carbon emission as of its current state. This paper analyzes the implementation and benefits of three sustainable alternatives to traditional jet fuel: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), hydrogen fuel cells, and electric batteries. A roadmap to show progress in reducing the carbon footprint of aviation is then proposed. The first phase of the roadmap involves the evolution of technology, validation, and testing of SAF-powered planes and the preliminary development of hydrogen production and propulsion and battery technology and the development of electric propulsion technologies. The second phase illustrates the widespread implementation of all three fuel sources where electric aviation will be enforced in short-range travel (30 min-3 hrs), medium-range aircraft (3-6 hrs) will use hydrogen fuel cells, and long-range (6+ hrs) airliners will utilize SAF. The third and final phase will enact the use of SAF and electric batteries for long-range applications while hydrogen fuel cells will dominate short- and medium-range aircraft. This roadmap, in combination with proper legislative action and corporate cooperation paired with public awareness, can help eliminate the usage of jet fuel in the aviation industry and replace it with three more sustainable and clean fuel sources.

green aviation↗
NASA NTRS2024

Sizing and Performance Analysis of a MW-Class Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP) System for a Parallel Hybrid Turboprop Concept

Aircraft electrification has emerged as a pivotal research and development focus in the 21st century, gaining international momentum as a strategic approach to curtail fuel consumption and emissions in the civil aviation sector. Through the Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) project, NASA is collaborating with industry partners to develop and demonstrate Megawatt (MW) class Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP) systems using regional turboprops, as well as single-aisle commercial transports. With the rapid emergence of novel EAP concepts, current efforts are focused on developing the capabilities to evaluate the impacts of electrification on vehicle-level performance. This requires parametric modeling at the conceptual design stage, using uncertainty propagation techniques to account for the high variability in EAP system architecture. This paper details an integrated approach to parametric sizing of multi-MW EAP systems in a large turboprop freighter concept with a parallel hybrid configuration. The primary goal is to assess vehicle-level performance sensitivities, such as range and fuel burn reduction, to variations in electrical system component-level performance metrics, including specific power, efficiency, and energy density, based on near-term EAP technology levels.

electrified aircraft propulsion↗
NASA NTRS2021

Environmental Benefits Assessment of the Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests Concept

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has been a focus area of the scientific community for the past several years. Specifically, the aviation industry has set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, providing a sustainable transportation mechanism with minimal impacts on the environment. This reduction must be accomplished through several means, including advanced technology, sustainable propulsion, efficient air traffic management, and improved operations. A potential solution for improving operations in an efficient air traffic management system is the Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) concept. The TASAR concept applies onboard automation for the purpose of advising the pilot of route modifications that would be beneficial to the flight, leading to a decrease in direct operating costs through fuel burn reduction and shorter flight times. This report discusses analyses that provide an estimate of the potential environmental benefits that result from the application of the TASAR concept. The data used for this benefits assessment was gathered during an operational evaluation on revenue flights with an airline partner between July 2018 and April 2019. The analyses in this report determined that there are impactful potential environmental benefits to be realized using the TASAR concept.

TASAR, Digital TASAR, 4D TASAR, SATM, Green Aviati↗
NASA NTRS2020

Green Light for Green Flight: NASA's Contributions to Environmentally Friendly Aviation

Although the shape and speed of commercial airliners have not changed significantly since the late-1950s, many aspects of performance such as range and fuel efficiency, and environmental impacts including noise and emissions have improved tremendously. By the beginning of the 21st century, however, it became clear that more work was necessary. Heightened sensitivity to, and understanding of, the impact of aviation on the environment and the reduced availability of low-cost energy placed the spotlight directly on aircraft efficiency and reducing environmental impacts. This realization spawned one of NASA's most ambitious aviation projects to date - the Environmentally Responsible Aviation project.

Peter W. Merlin↗
NASA NTRS2017

Solvent Replacement for Hydrochlorofluorocarbon-225 for Cleaning Oxygen System Components

This Technical Memorandum is the result of a 2-year project funded by the Defense Logistics Agency-Aviation, Hazardous Minimization and Green Products Branch, to identify and test two candidate solvents to replace hydrochlorofluorocarbon-225 (HCFC-225) for cleaning oxygen systems. The solvents were also compared to a second solvent composed predominantly of perfluorobutyl iodide (PFBI), which had received limited approval by the United States Air Force (USAF) for hand wipe cleaning of components for aviators’ breathing oxygen systems. The tests performed for this study were based on those reported in AFRL-ML-WP-TR-2003-4040, “The Wipe Solvent Program,” the test program used to qualify Ikon® Solvent P for USAF applications.The study was completed in August 2014, prior to the completion of a more extensive study funded by the NASA Rocket Propulsion Test (RPT) program. The results of the RPT project are reported in NASA/TP-2015-18207, “Replacement of Hydrochlorofluorocarbon–225 Solvent for Cleaning and Verification Sampling of NASA Propulsion Oxygen Systems Hardware, Ground Support Equipment, and Associated Test Systems.” The test methods used in this study for nonvolatile residue (NVR) background, materials compatibility, and cleaning effectiveness were different than those used for the RPT project; a smaller set of materials and contaminants were tested. The tests for this study were complementary to and provided supplementary information for the down-selection process during the course of the test program reported in NASA/TP-2015-218207.

Mitchell, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Propulsion Technologies for Future Commercial Aircraft

Mr. Follen has been invited talk on subject of Greening of Aerospace and Aviation Canada-Ohio Aerospace Summit 2013, February 25-26, 2013. This two-day, bi-national aerospace and aviation conference will focus on identifying business and research opportunities providing meaningful industry updates with ample opportunity to network and scheduled business-to-business and researcher-to-researcher meetings.

Follen, Gregory J.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Replacement of HCFC-225 Solvent for Cleaning NASA Propulsion Oxygen Systems

Since the 1990's, when the Class I Ozone Depleting Substance (ODS) chlorofluorocarbon‐113 (CFC‐113) was banned, NASA's propulsion test facilities at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Stennis Space Center (SSC) have relied upon hydrochlorofluorocarbon‐225 (HCFC‐225) to safely clean and verify the cleanliness of large scale propulsion oxygen systems. Effective January 1, 2015, the production, import, export, and new use of HCFC‐225, a Class II ODS, was prohibited by the Clean Air Act. In 2012 through 2014, leveraging resources from both NASA and the Defense Logistics Agency ‐ Aviation Hazardous Minimization and Green Products Branch, test labs at MSFC, SSC, and Johnson Space Center's White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) collaborated to seek out, test, and qualify a replacement for HCFC‐225 that is both an effective cleaner and safe for use with oxygen systems. This presentation summarizes the tests performed, results, and lessons learned. It also demonstrates the benefits of cross‐agency collaboration in a time of limited resources.

Lowrey, Nikki M.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Replacement of Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) -225 Solvent for Cleaning and Verification Sampling of NASA Propulsion Oxygen Systems Hardware, Ground Support Equipment, and Associated Test Systems

Since the 1990's, when the Class I Ozone Depleting Substance (ODS) chlorofluorocarbon-113 (CFC-113) was banned, NASA's rocket propulsion test facilities at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Stennis Space Center (SSC) have relied upon hydrochlorofluorocarbon-225 (HCFC-225) to safely clean and verify the cleanliness of large scale propulsion oxygen systems. Effective January 1, 2015, the production, import, export, and new use of HCFC-225, a Class II ODS, was prohibited by the Clean Air Act. In 2012 through 2014, leveraging resources from both the NASA Rocket Propulsion Test Program and the Defense Logistics Agency - Aviation Hazardous Minimization and Green Products Branch, test labs at MSFC, SSC, and Johnson Space Center's White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) collaborated to seek out, test, and qualify a replacement for HCFC-225 that is both an effective cleaner and safe for use with oxygen systems. Candidate solvents were selected and a test plan was developed following the guidelines of ASTM G127, Standard Guide for the Selection of Cleaning Agents for Oxygen Systems. Solvents were evaluated for materials compatibility, oxygen compatibility, cleaning effectiveness, and suitability for use in cleanliness verification and field cleaning operations. Two solvents were determined to be acceptable for cleaning oxygen systems and one was chosen for implementation at NASA's rocket propulsion test facilities. The test program and results are summarized. This project also demonstrated the benefits of cross-agency collaboration in a time of limited resources.

Mitchell, Mark A.↗