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Airlines operate on razor thin margins, and already spend a third of their operating budgets on fuel. However, as the industry starts to decarbonize and consume increasing levels of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), which is 2x-5x the price of jet fuel, airlines are facing the reality of balancing increasing fuel costs against growth objectives.
More recently, fusion has emerged as a potential energy source for terrestrial power and aircraft propulsion. Fusion happens when we merge atoms together at high speed, which releases energy that can be captured and used. The development of fusion energy is highly desirable as fusion fuels are millions of times more energy dense than fossil fuels, and aneutronic fusion offers humanity a zero emissions steady state energy source, without the radioactivity or long-term waste storage concerns.
AeroFuse is developing fusion propulsion systems to help airlines reduce fuel burn and emissions by 30-100%, whilst lowering fuel costs 10-13%, and increasing aircraft range by 20-200%. Our vision is to bring zero-emissions propulsion to large aircraft - without the green premium. AeroFuse's core innovation is in the development of a fusion heat exchanger technology to efficiently extract heat energy from fusion plasmas and integrate this process into existing gas turbine engines. Our Fusion Propulsion System (FPS) technology will be available as a retro-fit and line-fit solution, and our approach maximizes the re-use of existing turbine technology and existing tube and wing aircraft architectures.
A traditional jet engine works by burning fuel with compressed air to release hot exhaust gas past a turbine to produce thrust. AeroFuse will augment this combustion process in a Brayton cycle with heat generated from a compact fusion system. Compressed air from the exit of the compressor-stage in a jet turbine will provide high flow air into the AeroFuse heat exchanger, which is integrated to each end of a linear compact fusion system. This heat exchanger maintains the high vacuum of the fusion core, whilst enabling fusion charged particles and thermal energy to transit through the heat exchanger and into compressed air, thermalizing this airflow before it is injected into the combustor stage of the jet turbine.
