GE Aviation and the FAA announced this morning that they are partnering on the development of noise and emission-reducing technologies for aircraft engines. The company and government agency have committed to jointly investing $55 million over five years in research on open-fan engines, electrification, noise reduction, and alternative jet fuels via the FAA’s Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions, and Noise (CLEEN) program.
This is the third CLEEN award GE Aviation has received since 2010. Previous CLEEN awards, announced in 2010 and 2015, supported GE Aviation technology advancements, including Twin-Annular Pre-mixing Swirler (TAPS) combustor designs that led to technology now in CFM LEAP and GE9X engines, open-fan architecture, flight-management systems, alternative fuels, and electrification. The latest award comes after GE and Safran announced in June that they were jointly working to reduce engine fuel burn and CO2 emissions by 20 percent via their joint venture company CFM and its RISE (Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines) program, which targets delivery of these new engines in the next decade.
Technologies being funded by CLEEN Phase III include open fan; acoustic liners and outlet guide vanes to reduce noise; a low-emissions combustor that reduces nitrogen oxides (NOx); hybrid-electric power; advanced thermal management to handle hotter core temperatures; and sustainable aviation fuels.
"GE Aviation has a robust pipeline of breakthrough technologies to help achieve our ambitious decarbonization goals for aircraft engines," said Arjan Hegeman, general manager of advanced technologies for GE Aviation. "This investment by the U.S. FAA brings us another step closer to introducing open-fan, hybrid-electric, and new engine core technologies to our customers sooner, improving fuel efficiency and lowering carbon emissions from aviation.”