Flying on hydrogen with medium-sized passenger aircraft at distances of up to 750 kilometers: a group of Dutch companies will make this possible from 2028. The national government is investing 100 million euros in the project.
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We remove the engine and build a new system in it, after which it flies on hydrogen
Seventeen companies and organizations are participating in the initiative, including Fokker and TU Delft. “It is a very nice program with great potential,” says Joris Melkert, an aviation expert who is not involved in the project.
The ambition is remarkable because hydrogen-powered passenger planes – without emitting harmful greenhouse gases – are usually seen as something of the future. At the moment we are only experimenting with small devices. The British-American Zero Avia wants to have Cessnas fly on hydrogen from 2024. The Swedish Heart Aerospace is building a completely new aircraft for 19 passengers that should be able to cover a distance of 400 kilometers from 2026.
The Dutch consortium says it will be able to make commercially profitable flights between, for example, Rotterdam and London from 2028 possible for aircraft with forty to eighty passengers. It will convert existing medium propeller aircraft. “We take out the engine and build a new system in it, after which it flies on hydrogen,” says entrepreneur Michel van Ireland, who has helped bring the companies together over the past two years. In those two years, a first design has already been made and the finances have been calculated.
Hydrogen tank in the tail
Where aviation fuel is currently stored in the wings, it will be replaced in the so-called Hydrogen Aircraft Powertrain and Storage System (HAPSS) by a hydrogen tank in the tail of the aircraft. The hydrogen is transported to the engine and converted into electricity, which is then used to drive the propellers.
,,There are currently about 1500 aircraft flying around the world that are suitable for our package. We have already received the first request for a quote,” says Van Ireland. Especially in the Caribbean, but also in Scandinavia there are many islands where neither train nor car is an alternative to flying. The hope is that the Dutch companies will subsequently be involved in the construction of completely new aircraft, as soon as Airbus and Embraer start doing so.
Breakthrough ‘green’ flying
Flying is a relatively polluting mode of transport. According to the information organization Milieucentraal, a flight burdens the environment seven to eleven times as much as the same trip by train, and two to four times as much as a car, depending on the number of occupants.
Will ‘green’ flying on hydrogen really happen, just as electric driving broke through once Tesla had made it attractive? “You often see that people are a bit optimistic, but on the other hand that it is certainly feasible in the longer term,” says aviation expert Melkert. He expects that more and more biokerosene and synthetic kerosene will be used in the coming years, which is also allowed in existing appliances. “But hydrogen is simply the easiest sustainable fuel to make. It is also very light. So in the long term there are opportunities there, and the Netherlands can grab them too.”
More expensive tickets
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With flying on hydrogen, the Dutch aviation industry will once again lead the way
And the tickets, will they be more expensive? “That will happen anyway,” says Melkert. Aviation must also simply become sustainable in 2050. ,,That means that a lot of research and development has to take place and all sustainable fuels are more expensive than fossil kerosene. They are too cheap, because we do not pay a fair price for them, which also takes into account the damage to the environment. So it gets cleaner. It won’t get cheaper.”
The consortium estimates that a ticket will be up to 10 percent more expensive, but that consumers will also be willing to pay if their flight is really green. “We are going to accelerate the greening of aviation”, says Rinke Zonneveld of the South Holland development company InnovationQuarter, also a partner in the project. The Netherlands has a hundred years of experience in aviation. But in recent years mainly as a supplier to large foreign aircraft manufacturers. “With flying on hydrogen, the Dutch aviation industry will once again lead the way.”
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