In the UK, electro-fuel developer Zero Petroleum Ltd (Zero) has revealed plans for more fuelling activities in 2023, with the aim of further demonstrating how its fossil-free carbon-neutral synthetic fuels can be used directly in existing engines without modification.
The announcement was made to mark the one-year anniversary of its groundbreaking first synthetically fuelled aircraft flight.
The first flight, which took place on November 2, 2021, was the culmination of the initial stage of a collaborative project between Zero Petroleum and its partner the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The flight demonstrated, for the first time, how synthetic fuels can be used without altering the performance of current fossil-fuelled machinery.
From the minute we put the fuel into the airplane, I had a good feeling about it. When I started the engine, it started at the first push of the button and it just ran sweetly from there on in. When I selected full power, it responded immediately, it was very predictable and smooth. I couldn’t tell that it was a revolutionary new fuel in it because it behaved just like it was burning fossil fuel. We did the flight to prove that the technology works. It’s just the first step, we need to mature this technology and produce it in mass quantities so the rest of the aviation world can use it, commented Group Captain Peter ‘Willy’ Hackett after that demonstration flight.
