Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumHydrogen-powered flight is closer to takeoff than ever - Popular Science
Companies like Universal Hydrogen are retrofitting planes with hydrogen fuel cells.
Hydrogen-powered flight is closer to takeoff than ever
Once dismissed as impractical, hydrogen fuel cell planes are showing new promise after a series of successful test flights.
Popular Science | ANDREW PAUL | AUG 3, 2023
Despite only recently taking to the skies, hydrogen-powered planes are already assuaging some skeptics about their role within a more sustainable airline industry. And while current prototypes wont be making transoceanic flights anytime soon, their proofs-of-concept could guide better, more efficient, and larger craft in the years to come.
As Canary Media highlighted on August 2, two California-based startups have recently run multiple successful test flights for their experimental hydrogen gas fuel cell propeller planes. Both prototypes involve retrofitting existing turboprops to accommodate hydrogen fuel technology, albeit in slightly different ways to achieve different goals.
Universal Hydrogens 40-passenger Dash 8 prototype, for example, pairs an original jet fuel engine alongside a 1.2 megawatt fuel cell and 800-kilowatt electric motor. According to the companys CTO Mark Cousin, the Dash 8 has successfully flown a total of nine times as high as 10,000 feet while at speeds upwards of 170 knots (195 mph). Meanwhile, ZeroAvias modified 19-seat Dornier 228 has flown 10 times at 5,000 feet while traveling at 150 knots without any issues. The companys twin-engine turboprop includes one standard fuel setup, as well as a 600 kilowatt combination of hydrogen fuel cells and batteries.
Air travel has steadily rebounded following countries easing of COVID-19 lockdown precautions. While the numbers still arent pre-pandemic levels, they are expected to surpass them by 2025, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). All those additional planes in the sky come with carbon emissionsroughly 800 metric tonnes of it, as of last year. In order to ensure a sustainable future, the IEA estimates that nations need to keep those CO2 levels below 1000 metric tonnes through the decades end. Unfortunately, the organization currently deems the airline industry not on track to achieving the goal...more
https://www.popsci.com/technology/hydrogen-fuel-planes-clean-transportation/?h2fd
60 Seconds With McKenzie Kinzbach, Principal Propulsion Engineer at Universal Hydrogen
August 2023: The Hydrogen Energy Revolution Goes Airborne
NNadir
(33,625 posts)...them even dirtier, although it will redistribute the inevitable health effects on the poor, since the chemical plants in which hydrogen is made from dirty fossil fuels tend to be in poor areas.
The climate cost of this dirty technology will of course, fall on all humanity, since making hydrogen from fossil fuels destroys the exergy recoverable from dangerous fossil fuels, requiring the use of more of them.
This of course is the point of fossil fuel salespeople and salesbots rebranding fossil fuels as "hydrogen" in a bait and switch game.
A Giant Climate Lie: When they're selling hydrogen, what they're really selling is fossil fuels.
All the cheap marketing videos in the world cannot make hydrogen "green." It's a filthy fuel.
tymorial
(3,433 posts)We can't retrofit existing aircraft. We will need design and testing for different engine types and various aircraft in use (short haul, medium to long haul intercontinental). Then there is the issue of manufacturing. Sure, we can phase retirement and rollout but it's not just the planes.
We need training for mechanics so they can maintain systems. Airports need to be modified to allow fueling and maintenance of hydrogen cell aircraft. We can't just have certain cities and ports, what happens in an emergency landing? The plane is grounded?
Then there is regulation and internation agreements. Nearly every country cooperates when it comes to the aeronautical industry. What happens when poor countries are unable to retrofit their infrastructure. Who pays?
As I said, I think it's awesome this is being tested but this is all hype by tech media and its rather disingenuous. Those startups aren't going anywhere. Airbus told the EU they wouldn't be ready until 2050 and they are more driven by sustainability than Boeing at this point.
Lastly, unless the market changes, no one can afford hydrogen. Airlines spend roughly 20% of their budget on fuel. Hydrogen would increase that cost to 50 to 60 percent. That alone will stop any advancement.
These articles are like the hype over the successful fusion experiment. "It's going to revolutionize the world" no it won't and it hasn't. I swear, the media will sensationalize the senior editors mother's new church hat if it meant creating a buzz and generating ad revenue.
Sorry to be a downer. These articles annoy me
Caribbeans
(792 posts)Startups are also solving logistical problems of hydrogen usage so that the transition can happen smoothly and swiftly.
Ameya Paleja | Aug 04, 2023
...Both companies are confident that commercial operations of their hydrogen-powered flights could happen as early as 2025...
https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/hydrogen-powered-flights-closer-to-reality
What should "annoy" every single American is that absolutely NOTHING has been done for real alternative energy since Dick Nixon and Henry Kissinger linked the future of America's economy to the PETRODOLLAR.
It's finally almost over. Thank Goodness.