Could we drastically reduce CO2 emissions from aircraft thanks to the invention of this French start-up?

The development of thermoelectric motors by Sylphaero could make it possible to decarbonise the field of aviation in the future, a real technological revolution.

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Aviation is responsible for 2.6% of global CO2 emissions today, however, a recent innovation could make it possible to drastically reduce these greenhouse gas emissions in the future

An innovation proposed by the French Start-up Sylphaero could well make it possible to make the field of aviation much greener than it is today.

Aviation is still too polluting to this day

As we know today, air transport is harmful to the planet. It is indeed very polluting, accounting for 2.6% of global CO2 emissions. A constant all the more worrying because experts believe that the increase in air traffic should be increasingly important in the coming years.

Thus, players in the sector try every year to find technological innovations to reduce CO2 emissions into our atmosphere during air travel. A trend that is already showing good results since CO2 emissions per passenger have decreased by 50% over the last 30 years and the last generation of aircraft and engines emits less CO2 per passenger per kilometer than a car occupied by one or two people.

Many avenues are now being explored to replace the use of fossil fuels in the field of aviation, such as biofuels. Nevertheless, even if the pollution levels of the latter are much lower, they still pollute significantly and are above all more expensive, so that we are unable to produce them in sufficiently large quantities to date.

As a result, the Start-up Sylphaero, based in Mérignac near Bordeaux, looked at a way to decarbonize aviation in a much more drastic way, by producing 100% electric jet engines. An innovation that could make it possible in the future to eliminate the environmental problem of air transport.

A new type of electrothermal motor

France has always been a flagship nation of aviation, bringing to this field many innovations in history, innovations that have made it possible, for example, to improve flight safety, journey performance or reduce greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere.

Today, Sylphaero offers a potentially revolutionary innovation for the future of aviation.

Scientists working in this Start-up created in 2021 are indeed developing a new type of electrothermal engine for aircraft. They are in fact reactors in which researchers do not burn fuel, but instead use electric arcs to heat the air. These very high-power electric arcs will indeed heat the air to several thousand degrees Celsius and make it a plasma, making it possible to generate a thrust in the same way as a conventional reactor but without emitting CO2.

Thanks to this solution, the Start-up can address the problem of aviation's energy transition, while offering flight speeds similar to current conventional solutions, high performance and ease of maintenance. The technology developed by the Start-up thus applies to all types of engines and aircraft.

Sylphaero was also accompanied by the 3DExperienceLab of Dassault systèmes, a structure whose ambition is to accelerate innovation in all industrial sectors. The technology proposed by Sylphaero is therefore perfectly in line with this idea, which makes it possible to increase the performance of aircraft while decarbonizing them. In addition, in addition to future applications in the civil sector, this major innovation could also be used in the space field but also in other types of propulsion applications.