Future Propulsion Technologies for Sustainable Aviation

This is a new lecture included in the Bachelor’s program.

Both the lectures and the exam will be conducted in English.

Qualification objectives

By attending the course, students develop a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with innovative propulsion technologies designed for sustainable aviation. They are able to analyze the impact of aviation on the climate and environment and evaluate the emerging types of propulsion systems and alternative sustainable energy carriers, including sustainable fuels, batteries and fuel cells. Students also gain knowledge of effective strategies for performance improvement and insights into new propulsion technologies. Through hands-on exercises with advanced digital tools, the students learn to critically evaluate the performance and the emissions of future propulsion systems.

Content

This module covers the challenges for achieving a sustainable aviation and current research and development strategies for future propulsion systems. The following aspects included:

• Introduction on aircraft propulsion systems
• Climate and environmental impact of aviation and their emission legislation
• Energy carriers in aviation propulsion
• Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF): production and utilization
• New promising propulsion technologies:  Open rotor, boundary layer ingestion and distributed propulsion concept, isochoric combustion
• Alternative propulsion methods and energy carriers: batteries and fuel cells for aviation
• Hybrid and full electric aviation propulsion systems
• Hydrogen as aviation fuel

People

Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Federica Ferraro

Fenja Ahrendt, M.Sc.