ATI Programme funds first projects to address non-CO2 aircraft emissions

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The Non-CO2 Programme is delivered in partnership by the ATI, the Department for Business & Trade and Innovate UK. The funding programme was launched last year in partnership with a broader research programme from the Department for Transport and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).  

Recognising that non-CO2 atmospheric emissions could potentially make a greater contribution to the climate than aviation CO2 itself, the ATI also published a pioneering Non-CO2 Technologies Roadmap. This set out the aerospace sector’s collective ambition to improve understanding of non-CO2 aircraft emissions and the technology advancements needed to address their climate impact. 

The projects announced today have a total project value of £9.98 million, supported by £5.9 million of ATI Programme funding. These are expected to be the first in a portfolio of non-CO2 projects.

• The TRACE project led by Airbus UK with input from Imperial College, aims to deploy several approaches to addressing the effects of contrails. It includes developing critical contrail modelling & analysis capabilities, together with sensor technology to better permit operational contrail avoidance. In this way, the project aligns with the Fuel Characteristics, Aircraft Systems and Knowledge, Data and Ops streams in the ATI Non-CO2 Technology Roadmap. 
• The QRITOS project, led by Rolls-Royce with inputs from British Airways, Imperial College London and Heathrow, is examining smarter ways of using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The amount of SAF currently available is only a small proportion of aviation’s overall fuel requirements. It is therefore typically deployed at very low blend ratios. The project aims to better understand how best to target this scarce SAF towards the very small proportion of flights that drive the majority of climate impact. 
• In a third project, Oxford-based OXCCU will explore how their innovative new SAF fuel reduces soot and particulate emissions, a major driver for persistent warming contrails. OXCCU’s SAF, marketed under the brand OXFUEL, uses a novel iron-based Fischer-Tropsch catalyst to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen directly into SAF. The objective of this project is to fully understand the potential of this single-step process to produce jet fuel with improved combustion and non-CO2 characteristics. 

Industry Minister Chris McDonald said: “The race to Jet Zero is only going to be won through strong partnership between Government and Industry and that’s why we are proud to announce funding for three promising Non-CO2 sustainable aviation projects today.

“We’re also bolstering our support for the aerospace industry through our modern Industrial Strategy – giving business the confidence it needs to invest in UK advanced manufacturing and delivering on growth as part of our Plan for Change.”

Gary Elliott, CEO, Aerospace Technology Institute, said: “When the ATI published the Non-CO2 Technologies Roadmap and announced funding for related projects, non-CO2 became the fourth pillar of our UK Aerospace Technology Strategy. In responding rapidly with these three exciting technology projects, UK industry and academia have affirmed their world-class strengths in this important area of making aviation more sustainable.”

Lizzie Garratt, Head of Research – Atmospheric and SRO for the non-CO2 aviation research investment at NERC, said: “In parallel with the ATI’s non-CO2 technology focus, the Natural Environment Research Council with the Department for Transport announced £10 million of research funding into how aircraft non-CO2 emissions interact with climate over time, and how best to mitigate any adverse effects. A broad range of emission types was included, focused on technology readiness levels 1-4. This fundamental research programme complements the associated industrial research supported by the ATI and demonstrated in this first batch of projects announced today. We look forward to further research funded under both streams to be announced in the future.”

The Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) is an independent organization that develops the national technology strategy for the UK’s civil aerospace sector. It provides funding for research projects that align with the strategy through a joint government-industry programme and promotes innovation to ensure the UK remains competitive in the global aerospace market.

The ATI Programme co-funds industrial R&D projects to develop new cutting-edge aircraft technology. The programme is coordinated and managed by the ATI, the Department for Business and Trade, and Innovate UK (part of UK Research and Innovation).