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Airbus, Europe’s largest aircraft builder, announced plans to begin building an all-hydrogen-powered passenger jetliner this decade and have it in service by 2035.
The plan is part of the company’s commitment to converting to airplanes by 2050 that don’t give off carbon dioxide or other harmful emissions.
Now Airbus has to face the hard realities of its commitment.
Hydrogen stores as much as four times the energy of oil-based jet fuel in the same volume.
However, using the gas as jet fuel requires keeping the hydrogen in liquid form, which means cooling it to -253°C (-423°F).
To do that, Airbus will need to design an entire cooling infrastructure and then figure out how to supply it with a considerable amount of energy just to maintain the necessary temperature.
Also, the double-walled tanks needed to store the liquefied gas would be almost four times the size of today’s fuel tanks and would need to be incorporated into the body of the plane without compromising passenger or cargo space unduly—and without making the plane too big to fit into existing airports.
Those are some of the challenges in making a hydrogen-powered plane; airports would have to make major changes as well, such as building tanks and the other infrastructure needed to fuel hydrogen-driven jetliners.
The U.K.’s Climate Change Committee estimates that hydrogen fuel would boost the cost of a round trip between New York and London by £80, or between $105 and $110 at today’s exchange rates.
Airbus has said it will test early versions of hydrogen planes in short-hop and regional jets before scaling up to full-size passenger planes.
TRENDPOST: In 2019, the aviation industry contributed as much as 24 percent of humanity’s carbon emissions and now has committed to be virtually carbon-free by 2050.
That goal may be earnest, but it’s unlikely to be achieved. If Airbus and Boeing, which is also working on hydrogen-fueled jets, bring their creations to market as soon as 2030, it still will take decades to build out airport fueling infrastructure and for airlines to replace their fleets of petro-planes.
Aircraft companies also are working on electric planes, but the weight of today’s battery packs needed to cross an ocean or a continent is prohibitive.
TREND FORECAST: Hydrogen-powered jetliners won’t be practical without a breakthrough in hydrogen storage.