"We welcome Hamburg Airport as the latest “Hydrogen Hub at Airport” member. Hamburg Airport’s expertise in Hydrogen will be an invaluable asset in our ZEROe Ecosystem journey to build a future where aviation will be powered by decarbonised hydrogen. The journey to prepare airport infrastructure to support hydrogen and low carbon aviation begins on the ground with these partnerships. The growing involvement of airports worldwide, including Hamburg Airport, in Airbus' “Hydrogen Hub at Airport” concept will be key to deploying hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035," said Karine Guénan, vice-president ZEROe Hydrogen Ecosystem.
The use of hydrogen to power future aircraft should not only significantly reduce emissions in the air, but also contribute to the decarbonisation of aviation infrastructure on the ground. In 2020, Airbus launched the Hydrogen Hub at Airports programme to drive research into infrastructure requirements and low-carbon airport operations across the value chain. The cooperation in Hamburg includes Linde as well, a leading global industrial gases and engineering company.
“We are thrilled that Hamburg Airport is working together on equal terms with such international hubs as Paris - Charles de Gaulle and Changi Airport in Singapore as we make these decisive preparations for an energy transition in air travel,” said Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO of Hamburg Airport, at the signing of the co-operation agreement. “I am very proud of that fact, and also of the pioneering work of our staff, who have been pouring their hearts into laying the foundations for this work over many years.”
Airbus presented its ZEROe concept aircraft in 2020 and the development of the corresponding technology building blocks is now being driven forward in a global R&T network focussing on the development of hydrogen technology for future commercial aircraft.
With 4.5bn passenger trips taken each year and more than 16mn planes taking off in the US every year, aircraft are responsible for 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, according to the Global Carbon Project, and the problem is growing. One proposed solution rivals the power of fossil fuels without the emissions — hydrogen. With the industry attempting to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, both big players like Airbus and startups alike are exploring the technology.
Hydrogen is a high-potential technology with a specific energy-per-unit mass that is three times higher than traditional jet fuel. If generated from renewable energy through electrolysis, hydrogen emits no CO2 emissions, thereby enabling renewable energy to potentially power large aircraft over long distances but without the undesirable by-product of CO2 emissions.
Because hydrogen has a lower volumetric energy density, the visual appearance of future aircraft will likely change. This is to better accommodate hydrogen storage solutions that will be bulkier than existing jet fuel storage tanks.
Hydrogen has been safely used in the aerospace and automobile industries for decades. The aviation industry’s challenge now is to take this decarbonised energy carrier and adapt it to commercial aviation’s needs.
Aircraft manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing two primary uses for hydrogen:
Hydrogen propulsion: Hydrogen can be combusted through modified gas-turbine engines or converted into electrical power that complements the gas turbine via fuel cells. The combination of both creates a highly efficient hybrid-electric propulsion chain powered entirely by hydrogen.
Synthetic fuels: Hydrogen can be used to create e-fuels, which are generated exclusively through renewable energy.
In today’s aircraft, wings are where the fuel is stored, and are in no way large enough to store the hydrogen that would be needed for a long flight. Hydrogen jets of the future could have extra-large fuselages, but more likely they will be what’s called blended wing, in which the planes are shaped like large triangles. This would allow them to store more fuel, but also reduce fuel consumption to make the aircraft aerodynamics even better.
Planes using hydrogen would emit only water, and initial tests suggest they can be just as fast as traditional planes, carrying more than a hundred passengers per flight over thousands of kilometres.
Most of the world’s hydrogen today is produced by reforming methane from natural gas – a fossil fuel - which produces carbon dioxide. Efforts are underway to develop green hydrogen by using an electric current from a renewable source to convert water into oxygen and hydrogen and reduce emissions in its production. If that is possible, along with no emissions from the planes themselves, aviation could become a green form of travel.
There are significant challenges that remain. If Europe were to fully achieve the environmental benefits of hydrogen-power – for example, for air travel, the production of clean – or green – hydrogen needs to be dramatically scaled up. Clean hydrogen is produced from water using an electric current from a renewable source, rather than from fossil fuels. Today only a tiny fraction of hydrogen used in Europe is categorically “clean.”
