Leeham News and Analysis
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Bjorn’s Corner: The challenges of hydrogen. Part 17. Hydrogen airliner program
By Bjorn Fehrm
December 11, 2020, ©. Leeham News: We use this Corner to define the time table for our hydrogen airliner program and for what areas we need to conduct risk-reducing research before we embark on an actual design.
As we said in last week’s Corner, we aim to develop a hydrogen airliner for the heart of the domestic market after the COVID-19 Pandemic. It’s a 160 to 180 seat single-aisle turbofan driven airliner, using liquid hydrogen as the fuel.
Figure 1. Airbus ZEROe hydrogen-fueled airliner concepts. Source: Airbus.
Bjorn’s Corner: The challenges of Hydrogen. Part 16. A Hydrogen airliner
December 4, 2020, ©. Leeham News: To dig a level deeper into the challenges of hydrogen airliners, as a next step we design such a plane (on a high level), now that we have covered the basics.
It will make us traverse the fundamental design tradeoffs of such a design. Reflecting on what we discussed in Part 3, “The Application Space for a Hydrogen Airliner,” we focus on the single-aisle short-haul domestic market, Figure 1.
Figure 1. CO2 emissions per aircraft type and range flown. Source: EU Hydrogen Powered Aviation report.
Bjorn’s Corner: The challenges of Hydrogen. Part 15. Hydrogen cost
By Bjorn Fehrm
November 13, 2020, ©. Leeham News: In our series on hydrogen as an energy store for airliners, we now look at the cost of hydrogen.
The current cost-efficient production is predominantly by reforming natural gas, meaning it’s a process that involves carbons. Hydrogen as an energy transporter then makes no sense as the point is to de-carbonize our energy supply.
Figure 1. Cost of Hydrogen by 2040 as projected by the EU study. Source: EU.
Bjorn’s Corner: The challenges of Hydrogen. Part 14. Supply of Hydrogen
By Bjorn Fehrm
November 6, 2020, ©. Leeham News: In our series on Hydrogen as an energy store for airliners we now look at how to create a supply industry for hydrogen.
The problem of a sizable and competitive hydrogen supply industry is a chicken or egg problem. To achieve a competitive and functioning hydrogen transport system we need an adequate hydrogen infrastructure and to get an adequate hydrogen industry we need large-scale consumers.
Figure 1. The CO2 problem and the main contributors. Source: Wikipedia.
Bjorn’s Corner: The challenges of Hydrogen. Part 13. The supply of Hydrogen
October 30, 2020, ©. Leeham News: In our series on Hydrogen as an energy store for airliners we now address the problem of liquid hydrogen supply for air transport.
Before we go into the ecosystem and its costs, let’s start with a more principle discussion. Is continuing today’s consumption pattern a valid alternative?
Figure 1. World energy consumption by type and development. Source: Wikipedia.
Bjorn’s Corner: The challenges of Hydrogen. Part 12. Safety
By Bjorn Fehrm
October 23, 2020, ©. Leeham News: In our series on Hydrogen as an energy store for airliners we look deeper at the safety of a hydrogen airliner.
Do the safety rules for the aircraft or the airport need to be written new or can the existing ones be used with changes?
Bjorn’s Corner: The challenges of Hydrogen. Part 11. Emissions
October 2, 2020, ©. Leeham News: In our series on Hydrogen as an energy store for airliners we look deeper at the emissions from a hydrogen airliner and compare it to the emissions from today’s carbon fueled aircraft.
Figure 1. The three Hydrogen concepts from Airbus. Source: Airbus.
Hydrogen, electric and hybrid alternatives not here yet
By Scott Hamilton
Sept. 25, 2020, © Leeham News: Commercial aviation has had 70 years to use jet fuel safely. It’s unclear how long it will take to reach the same level of safety with hydrogen, say Boeing.
In a briefing Tuesday, the day after Airbus revealed its hydrogen powered concepts for three potential airliners, the vice president and general manager of product development expressed caution about hydrogen as a fuel source.
Bjorn’s Corner: The challenges of Hydrogen. Part 10. Airbus’ Hydrogen ZEROe concepts
September 25, 2020, ©. Leeham News: In our series on Hydrogen as an energy store for airliners, we look at the three hydrogen-based concept aircraft Airbus presented this week.
They are called ZEROe and are concepts and not products, but their design tells us a lot about where Airbus is with its studies and how the hydrogen demonstrator aircraft might look like come 2026-2028.
Airbus announces zero-emission airliner concepts.
By Bjorn Fehrm
September 21, 2020, © Leeham News: Airbus held a webcast today, announcing three zero-emission airliner concepts called the ZEROe line (Figure 1). The two conventional designs, the turbofan airliner and the turboprop use hydrogen as the fuel for their gas turbine engines. The blended wing-body is a more futuristic concept where propulsion technology was not specified.
The idea is to use these concepts as work paths to explore the technologies around them and their aerodynamic characteristics. The concepts “are not products” underlined Airbus EVP development Jean-Brice Dumont. “It’s rather examples of designs around which the technologies can be explored and results compared. After concepts follow demonstrators and then products.”
Figure 1. Airbus ZEROe (e for emission) concepts. Source: Airbus.