Somewhere to land – building the airport infrastructure for hydrogen planes
James Cox, Public Affairs Lead at Bristol Airport, explores how airport infrastructure is critical to hydrogen-powered flight becoming an everyday reality for passengers in the UK. Bristol Airport is a board member of Hydrogen South West.
Hydrogen aircraft are coming. Companies such as Zero Avia have already demonstrated their viability, with their prototype engine taking to the skies above the South West. Working with Rolls-Royce, easyJet has undertaken ground testing of hydrogen combustion engines. Airbus have set themselves a target of making a liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft commercially available by 2035.
Bristol Airport believes that hydrogen-flight could eventually serve the majority of our routes. The development of hydrogen-powered flight is enormously exciting and much of it is happening here in the South West, but one very obvious problem presents itself – once these aircraft are built, will they be able to fly anywhere?
Aviation is already a complex jigsaw of companies, systems, and regulations – thousands of pieces come together so that that approximately 90,000 passengers flights happen globally every day. Hydrogen flight requires the most radical change since the introduction of jet airliners 71 years ago.
Airports will need to have:
· Access to a reliable, cost-effective supply of hydrogen
· Hydrogen refuelling infrastructure
· Employees who have the necessary skills and experience
· Established safety and environmental regulations
Adding entirely new jigsaw pieces isn’t something that’s normally done – but that’s what hydrogen requires us to do.
Creating a supply
As already identified by Airbus, the availability of a cost-effective, reliable supply of the fuel at airports is the key risk facing hydrogen flight. This is the main reason Bristol Airport drove the formation of Hydrogen South West, so that an ecosystem could be formed for to make, move, and use hydrogen in our region. Forming relationships with hydrogen producers and those with the ability to move the fuel has obvious benefits, but airports can also play a role creating demand. Hydrogen faces a chicken and egg problem, so to ensure hydrogen is readily available when its needed, airports can work with companies who will require the fuel long before aircraft become available, ensuring there is demand in their region and therefore supply.
Planning for hydrogen infrastructure
Hydrogen storage is something that Bristol Airport has already begun to assess, the first stage of identifying land requirements for storing the fuel on site, managing deliveries, and getting it to the aircraft. Bristol Airport is more space-restrained than most, but for many airports there will be the potential to act as a hydrogen hub for their region, driving demand by providing the fuel for their own and external vehicles that will be difficult to electrify, including some buses and other heavy vehiciles, as well as industrial and heating uses. We’ve working on a joint project with Airbus, easyJet, and Hynamics to identify these opportunities.
Mind the skills gap
Getting hydrogen on-site is a critical step in the next piece of the jigsaw – developing skills. We will need to train new and reskill existing employees on all aspects of managing hydrogen. Starting from a very low base, the UK has the potential to provide 100,000 high-skill jobs in hydrogen by 2050. Hydrogen South West has put skills at the centre of its activity and is supported by our region’s universities and its members include Further Education colleges. Training courses have already been offered for managers to introduce hydrogen opportunities and limitations, creating a foundation to build new courses as demand ramps up.
The need for innovative regulation
The final piece is establishing rigeous safety and environmental regulations. The certification of hydrogen-powered aircraft will be meticulous and the same approach will be needed on the ground. Regulations around hydrogen airside are either outdated or non-existant, so questions abound. Can we refuel aircraft on the stand or does it need to take place away from the terminal? Can passengers be aboard during refuelling? How will hydrogen interact with other fuels? How do we handle liquid hydrogen burn off? Answering these and many others will require a new working relationship with regulators, with a proactive culture that supports innovation.
12 years to go
Adding new pieces to an existing jigsaw puzzle isn’t going to be easy. Hydrogen South West is a great example of the kind of partnership that will be needed to overcome these novel challenges, not least creating a hydrogen ecosystem before the fuel is commercially required by aircraft. Our immediate priority needs to be undertaking pilot projects at UK airports so we can identify all the granual challenges that aviation must overcome before we even attempt to solve them - whether technical, regulatory, or skills-based. With only 12 years until the first hydrogen Airbus is due to arrive, time is not on our side.