OREANDA-NEWS. Clean jet engines work thermally more efficiently and consume less kerosene. In order to maintain their efficiency, therefore, beside the standard service intervals, aircraft turbines must also be regularly cleaned to free them of all kinds of pollution, such as dust, pollen and salt. 

Within the context of the "Cyclean 2.0" program, experts from Lufthansa Technik and the University of Darmstadt are currently investigating how the cleaning process can be made more economical and environmentally-friendly. One promising idea: instead of water, in the near future the jet engine cleaning could be carried out with CO2 dry ice pellets. This would bring a whole series of advantages: time-savings of up to 50 percent due to a shorter, residue-free cleaning process, declining maintenance costs, as well as engine cleaning even in winter. The Cyclean® method developed by Lufthansa Technik which is currently being used is water-based and can only be used when external temperatures are above 5 degrees centigrade. Cleaning with dry ice would also lead to large savings in volumes of water. "Our focus is on the performance of the jet engines, cost savings as well as the protection of the environment through lower CO2 emissions and the saving of natural resources like water", says Holger Appel, in charge of the research project at Lufthansa Technik.