Keywords

Cracked Ammonia, Hydrogen, Jet Engine, Sustainable Aviation, Decarbonization

Abstract

Aviation’s share of total global carbon emissions has been on the rise as both the decarbonization of other industries and the number of flights has increased. Ammonia as a jet fuel has been receiving attention as a potential carbon free energy storage pathway, both as a fuel and as a carrier of hydrogen. Utilizing ammonia as a fuel requires energy intensive processes making this pathway a compromise specifically intended for power generation purposes that cannot directly use sustainable energy. It is pertinent to understand the cost of realizing ammonia’s advantages as a fuel in the hard to decarbonize industry of aviation. Thermodynamic and Propulsion analysis, run in python and validated by public data, was performed to produce baseline data based loosely on the CFM Leap-1B engine. Modeling was then performed using ammonia, hydrogen, and percentages of cracked ammonia to compare to Jet A. Results show a drop in SFC and a gain in efficiency of 64.72% and 3.68% for hydrogen, respectively, and an increase of 121.7% and 5.08% for ammonia, respectively. Finally, cracked ammonia was used as a fuel while including the effects of heat offtake from the combustion chamber taken to crack the ammonia. The results show an increase in SFC with low and high cracking efficiencies, while revealing that there is a desirable cracking efficiency between 15.5 and 90% where SFC is at a minimum. Out of the 5 cases evaluated, 84.95% cracking resulted in the lowest SFC with a 145.61% increase from Jet A and a 10.8% increase from Ammonia. Finally, a payload diagram reveals the effect of changing fuels on a 737 MAX 8, with Ammonia and Hydrogen dropping the MPL range by around 67 and 81%, respectively, but still greatly outpacing current electric planes.

Completion Date

2024

Semester

Fall

Committee Chair

Kapat, Jayanta

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Degree Program

Mechanical Engineering

Format

PDF

Identifier

DP0028979

Language

English

Release Date

12-15-2024

Access Status

Thesis

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

Accessibility Status

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