Could Universal Hydrogen’s Concept Create A Hydrogen-Powered Single-Aisle Airliner?
Universal Hydrogen are making some of what I would consider the right moves.
Hydrogen Supply
Universal Hydrogen have signed a supply contract with Fortescue Future Industries for the supply of green hydrogen.
The deal is described in this press release on the FFI web site, which is entitled FFI And Universal Hydrogen Join Forces To Decarbonise Aviation.
Collaboration With Airbus
There is an article on BusinessWire, which is entitled Universal Hydrogen Announces New Engineering Development Center Located In Toulouse, France, The Heart of European Aviation.
Toulouse is the home of Airbus.
The Capsule Concept
The capsule concept could be universal.
These are widths of various planes and trains.
- De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 – 2.52 metres – Internal
- Airbus ATR 72 – 2.57 metres- Internal
- Airbus A320neo – 3.7 metres – Internal
- Boeing 737 – 3.53 metres – Internal
- Class 800 train – 2.7 metres – External
- Class 66 locomotive – 2.65 metres – External
I suspect that if the design is correct, then one size of capsule can be made to fit a variety of applications.
Application To Regional Aviation
I discussed this in Flybe Appears To Be On The Way Back.
I believe that De Havilland Canada Dash 8s and Airbus ATR 72s could be converted to hydrogen.
Road Transport
Surely, the capsules would be too big for road transport in the UK and many other countries.
But they would probably be ideal to deliver hydrogen to bus and truck depots and filling stations for hydrogen vehicles. They would just be plugged in and then could start dispensing the fuel.
Decarbonation Of Diesel Locomotives
Consider.
- The cross-section of a diesel locomotive even in the UK, is larger than that of a regional airliner.
- Most of the space in the body of a diesel locomotive is taken up by a large diesel engine.
- Fuel ells or a small gas turbine could be small compared to the diesel engine.
- Most existing diesel locomotives have electric transmissions.
I believe that many diesel-electric locomotives could be converted to hydrogen power and some could use Universal Hydrogen’s capsules.
Zero-Carbon Backup Generators
Many pieces of important infrastructure, like data centres, hospitals and large railway stations have backup generators.
Universal Hydrogen’s capsules could provide hydrogen for zero-carbon backup generators.
Universal Hydrogen’s Ideas For Single-Aisle Airliners
In the Product page on the Universal Hydrogen web site, there is a section, which is entitled Single Aisle / Narrowbody, where this is the first two sentences.
The majority of aviation emissions are produced by the single aisle (also known as narrowbody) fleet, dominated by the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families of aircraft. Both Boeing and Airbus are likely to develop a replacement for these venerable models for entry into service in the mid 2030s.
Alongside the text is this graphic, which compares various airliners.
Universal Hydrogen are proposing that Airbus stretch the A321, so that hydrogen capsules can be fitted in the rear of the fuselage, so that the aircraft has similar proportions to the Boeing 757.
Read the full text on the Product page of the Universal Hydrogen web site.
I can see that if they could prove the concept with the Regional Airliner, they could develop the two concepts shown in the graphic.
Conclusion
This is a simple, but very exciting project.
The Anonymous Widower 