Edinburgh Napier’s Transport Research Institute has been serving Scotland and the UK since 1996. It has an established reputation for research, consultancy and teaching in transport policy; planning; and engineering. This includes offering expert research and consultancy on low-carbon transportation and new technology solutions for the future of UK transport and city solutions.

Problem:

The aviation industry is responsible for 2.5% of global CO2 emissions. To advance the decarbonisation of the sector, alternative and affordable aviation solutions must be developed and introduced. In particular, this must be attractive to the public because of negative associations with jet airlines.

Solution:

Funded by Innovate UK, Project HEART (Hydrogen Electric and Automated Regional Transportation) brings together a consortium of UK companies, SMEs and international experts, including academics and researchers from our Edinburgh Napier’s Transport Research Institute (TRI), who are working to develop an innovative, low-carbon proposal in regional aviation through the introduction of hydrogen electric aircrafts for short domestic and regional based flights.  

 

An innovative, low-carbon proposal in regional aviation 

Plans to utilise hydrogen-electric technologies are central to decarbonisation of the energy market. In addition, they present opportunities to deliver the same performance as a conventional aircraft engine, but with zero carbon emissions and at around half of the operating costs. This has the potential to revolutionise domestic travel in the UK, and scale up to wider usage.

Project HEART is an innovative proposal in domestic aviation, that is exploring the use low-carbon, small hydrogen-powered aircrafts—which emit no noxious gases into the atmosphere—as the basis of a frequent service between multiple hubs at a regional level. Excitingly, these ZeroAvia planes are already flying and undergoing certification.

The hydrogen electric aircrafts will be a lot smaller than conventional airplanes and fly shorter, regional and domestic distances. The complete process of doing that, including the building of the terminals, generating the green hydrogen, supplying it to the aircraft; flying the aircraft, and getting passengers to and from the terminal is the scope of the entire project.

Working on the project is a consortium of global technical partners including: Blue Bear, ZeroAvia, Britten-Norman, Fleet OnDemand, Protium, Inmarsat, Weston Williamson + Partners, Highlands and Islands Airport, Loganair, and experts from Edinburgh Napier’s Transport Research Institute.

A revolution in domestic aviation – but will people fly?

The role of Edinburgh Napier’s Transport Research Institute in the HEART consortium is to investigate and report on the public acceptance, Inclusion, and behavioural aspects of the project. Will there be public acceptance; and whether people would feel comfortable flying in a small aeroplane that had an electric engine and hydrogen fuel cells on board? Or would they have concerns about any aspects of the service. The Transport Research Institute is also researching the novel, sustainable, inclusive, terminal design that must accommodate People with capability variations, such as low vision or physical movement restrictions.

It envisaged that smaller zero-emission aircrafts will be able to achieve similar per-seat economics as today’s large regional jets, allowing economical use of smaller local airfields for point-to-point travel, with virtually no security lines or delays, and a much more pleasant overall flying experience, while being cleaner and more inclusive.