Marshall Futureworx and Aerospace attended the annual Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Destination Zero Conference in Birmingham on 14-15 November.
The annual event is a perfect opportunity for organisations of all sizes to share their progress on game-changing clean tech innovations. For Marshall, the focus was the company’s recently announced partnership with GKN Aerospace and Parker Aerospace to explore liquid hydrogen fuel systems for zero emission aircraft.
This partnership marks a significant milestone in the pursuit of sustainable aviation: hydrogen propulsion, whether through fuel cells or combustion, is considered a critical pathway for the aviation industry to achieve its ambitious goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
Other exhibitors at the ATI conference from across industry and academia included Cranfield University, UK Aerospace Research Consortium, Airbus, Rolls Royce, GKN Aerospace, ZeroAvia and Reaction Engines. Chief among several high-profile speakers over the course of the conference, Minister of State for Industry and Economic Security Nusrat Ghani gave an important government update accelerating technological developments towards the industry's Net Zero 2050 goals.
"ATI's conference was an important moment for the future of the aerospace industry, and an excellent opportunity to discuss how we can continue to develop novel technologies at pace, ensuring we reach Net Zero by 2050," said Marshall Futureworx Managing Director Kieren Paterson.
"Given our strong partnerships with industry leaders and our decades of expertise in developing and certifying novel fuel systems, we are uniquely positioned to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of hydrogen fuel systems for aircraft."
Left to right: Futureworx Head of Systems Engineering Steven Tweddell, Aerospace Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Burnip, Futureworx Head of Innovation Marta Barrabino, Futureworx MD Kieren Paterson
The proposed liquid hydrogen fuel system being developed with GKN and Parker will benefit significantly from the ongoing H2GEAR programme, which is led by GKN and funded by the Aerospace Technology Institute. H2GEAR will ground test a scalable hydrogen electric fuel cell propulsion system in 2025, with the intention of bringing the complete scalable fuel system and propulsion system together in a single flight test bed environment before the end of the decade.