How to decarbonize aviation? As a prelude to the Paris Air Show which opens on Monday, Emmanuel Macron is going to Villaroche (Seine-et-Marne) on Friday, where he will visit the factory and the center of R
To manufacture a “green” engine that will consume less, Safran is associated 50-50 with the American GE within the joint company CFM. Together, they have already invented the CFM56, the best-selling engine in the history of aeronautics. It notably equips the Airbus A320 and the Boeign 737. Currently, in Villaroche, Safran notably manufactures the Leap engine, on board the A320neo, the 737MAX and the Chinese C919. “Almost 10,000 orders for that engine have been placed. The Leap engine is 15% less fuel consumption compared to the CFM56 engine. So it’s 15% less consumption, which required nearly 35 years of research and experimental development, ”we explain at the Élysée.
Now it’s about producing an even less fuel-efficient engine. This future, according to Safran and GE, has a code name: Rise, for Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines. Under study since 2019, this engine promises to reduce fuel consumption by at least 20% (even up to 30%), a central element for the decarbonization of aviation.
“Since CFM was founded in 1974, our enormous efforts in research and innovation have reduced the fuel consumption of our engines by an average of 1% per year […]. It is not enough. We now have to go twice as fast,” explained Olivier Andriès, CEO of Safran, X-Mines and former adviser to Jean-Luc Lagardère, in 2021 when presenting this innovation to the press. “When we talk about a 20% reduction in consumption, that’s compared to current aviation fuel. If we were to just put sustainable fuel in this new engine, it would reduce emissions by 80% and if it was hydrogen, which is kind of nirvana, it would reduce CO2 emissions by 100%,” added John Slattery, CEO of GE.
To achieve this, the Rise engine will have composite fan blades and metal alloys resistant to very high temperatures. It will use additive manufacturing, in other words three-dimensional objects printed in 3D from a digital file. “The question is to what extent with public support and private support, we will be able to develop this engine and to what extent we will be on time compared to the American or Chinese competition,” he explains. – we at the Elysée.
An issue of “green sovereignty” in which Safran therefore has its part to play. The airline sector transported 4.5 billion passengers in 2019, producing 2.4% of global CO2 emissions, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). It is expected to double by 2050.