The Anonymous Widower

Would A Dual-Fuel Boeing 747 Or Airbus A380 Save Carbon?

This press release from Airbus is entitled The ZEROe Demonstrator Has Arrived.

This is the introductory paragraph.

2022 marks a new and exciting phase for ZEROe – Airbus’ ambition to develop the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035. The multi-year demonstrator programme has officially been launched with the objective to test a variety of hydrogen technologies both on the ground and in the air.

The ZEROe demonstrator will be the first Airbus A 380 aircraft and it is shown in this Airbus visualisation.

Note.

1. The four hydrogen tanks in the fuselage.
2. The fifth engine mounted in a pod on the fuselage.
3. There’s certainly lots of space inside the fuselage for more hydrogen tanks and test and monitoring equipment.

Take away the fifth engine and the test equipment and this aircraft becomes an A380 with two fuel systems; hydrogen and aviation fuel.

Consider.

• Suppose two engines were hydrogen-capable and two were normal engines running on aviation fuel or Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
• I don’t think it is impossible to build engines that could run on both hydrogen and Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
• All aircraft use fuel at a higher rate, during take-off and climbing.
• Do long non-stop flights use less fuel, than ones with stops?
• As altitude increases, air resistance decreases.
• Aircraft could fly slower to reduce the fuel needed, as they did in the oil crises in the last century.
• Generally, the most economical way to fly a route, is to climb to maximum altitude, fly level until descending into the destination.
• The aircraft would not carry cargo in the belly-hold.
• There could be a hydrogen-powered APU, as I wrote about in Airbus To Trial In-flight Auxiliary Power Entirely Generated By Hydrogen.
• This document from IATA says that in its liquid form, contains about 2.5 times more energy per kilogram than kerosene.
• The Boeing 747 first flew in 1969 and the Airbus A 380 in 2005, so these aircraft are well known.

I just wonder, if it is possible to work out a flight profile, that would enable these aircraft to fly very long non-stop routes?

• All four engines would be used for take-off.
• An appropriate power setting would be used for the cruise and the descent.
• There would be large numbers of 747s and A 380s in good condition to convert.
• The plane would land with little or no hydrogen left.

The hydrogen used would cut the carbon footprint of the flight.

July 15, 2023 - Posted by AnonW | Hydrogen, Transport/Travel | Airbus A380, Boeing 747, Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Fuel