The UK's stated objective to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 means that the aerospace industry must focus on research and development that will deliver future sustainable commercial aircraft. The propulsion systems for these sustainable aircraft may be electric, fuel-cell, hybrid or ultra-high bypass ratio gas turbines. Regardless, all will bring new thermal management challenges that must be solved.

One key component of every type of propulsion system will be heat exchangers that must transfer incredible amounts of heat energy. The aviation industry is particularly sensitive to the volume and mass of these cooling systems, and the demands on the heat exchangers are only increasing with the development of sustainable propulsion technologies. Rolls-Royce's Ultrafan gas turbine engine will use a new ultra-high bypass ratio geared turbofan configuration to deliver a leap forward in fuel efficiency, but the gearbox must transmit in the region of 50 megawatts of power. Even with an extremely high efficiency of 99%, there will still be about half a megawatt of heat energy due to friction (the equivalent of 50 homes) that must be removed from the transmission. Therefore, a step change in heat exchanger technology is also necessary to provide adequate cooling to the gearbox and other engine components without prohibitive mass and volume penalties.

As current heat exchangers on the market are not up to this task, Qdot Technology Ltd is developing innovative heat exchanger technologies that combine novel additive manufacturing techniques with Qdot's world leading thermo-fluid design and analysis expertise and its innovations already developed for nuclear fusion power plants -- arguably the most difficult thermal challenge in the world. The aim of this project is to build partnerships in the aerospace industry, both customers and suppliers, and assess the performance and manufacturing costs of the innovative heat exchanger technology, accelerating its route to market and contributing to the UK aerospace industry maintaining its competitive edge in the future of sustainable aviation.