Gatwick’s Hydrogen Advantage Over Heathrow
The Future Of Hydrogen In Aviation
I believe that hydrogen will have a big future in aviation.
Powering Aircraft
It will be some years, but not as many as some people think, before we see hydrogen-powered aircraft in the air.
Airbus have produced this infographic of three possible hydrogen-powered aircraft.
Discover the three zero-emission concept aircraft known as ZEROe in this infographic. These turbofan, turboprop, and blended-wing-body configurations are all hydrogen hybrid aircraft.
I wrote a bit more about these three hydrogen-powered concepts in ZEROe – Towards The World’s First Zero-Emission Commercial Aircraft.
My best estimate is that we’ll see hydrogen-powered aircraft in the air by 2035.
Towing Aircraft Around
Most aircraft are very heavy and towing them around needs a lot of zero-carbon energy.
So I think it is likely, that at some time in the near future,tugs to tow large aircraft around an airport will be hydrogen powered.
If you type “hydrogen-powered aircraft tug” into Google, you get several sensible product developments, including ones from.
- Exeter Airport
- Teesside Airport
- The Royal Air Force.
- The US Air Force
Note.
- The involvement of the military.
- At least two of the tugs are conversions of existing equipment.
- The extra weight of the battery in an electric-powered tug, may make the realisation of a viable electric aircraft-tug difficult.
I suspect we’ll see hydrogen-powered aircraft tugs in use on airports around the world in the near future.
Long-Term Car-Park Buses
I would have thought that using hydrogen-powered or battery-electric buses to serve long-term car-parks at an airport would be an obvious application. But it does appear that airports using zero-carbon buses to serve long-term car-parks are not very common.
- Gatwick uses a large fleet of hydrogen buses to bring passengers and staff to the airport, but these don’t appear to be linked to car parking.
- Incheon Airport in Korea does appear to use hydrogen-powered buses.
Please let me know, if you know of any other uses of hydrogen-powered vehicles at airports.
Hydrogen For Heathrow
This Google Map shows Heathrow Airport.
Note.
- The M4 going across the map.
- The two main runways.
- A new third runway would go between the M4 and the Northern runway.
It is likely if the third runway goes ahead, the village of Harmondsworth will be flattened.
It is likely that supplying hydrogen to Heathrow will mean a hydrogen terminal somewhere South of the M4, which could be supplied by rail tankers.
Hydrogen For Gatwick
This Google Map shows Gatwick Airport.
Note.
- The current main runway with the emergency runway to its North.
- Because the runways are too close together they cannot be used simultaneously.
- To create a second runway, the two runways would be moved further apart and the current emergency runway would be enlarged.
- The Brighton Main Line runs North-South past the Eastern end of the main runway.
Gatwick’s expansion plan doesn’t appear to require any properties outside the airport boundaries to be demolished.
This Google Map shows Sussex between Gatwick Airport and Brighton.
Note.
- Gatwick Airport is indicated by the red arrow at the top of the map.
- Gatwick’s runways can be picked out under the red arrow.
- The South Coast is at the bottom of the map.
- The M23 and the Brighton Main Line connect Gatwick Airport and Brighton.
- Shoreham and Brighton are on the South Coast.
- Click the map to show on a larger scale.
Under current plans, the Ramplion offshore wind farm off the South Coast is going to be increased in size to 1.6 GW.
The simplest plan to provide large amounts of green hydrogen to Gatwick would be to build a large electrolyser in the Port of Shoreham and pipe it along the railway to Gatwick Airport. Hydrogen could also be shipped at night into the Airport using rail tankers.
There’s no doubt in my mind, that it will be much easier to supply large quantities of hydrogen to Gatwick, rather than Heathrow.
In 2023, I wrote Discover How Greater Brighton Is Championing The Transition To Hydrogen, which probably indicates that the locals and their politicians, would welcome the investment in hydrogen in their city.
It should also be noted that world class consultants Ricardo, who are very much involved in the development and promotion of hydrogen technology are based in Shoreham.
Liquid hydrogen could also be imported and distributed from the Port of Shoreham.
Brighton could end up as the South of England’s Hydrogen City.
Sussex Will Be Leader In Hydrogen Energy Production
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Argus.
These are the first three paragraphs.
The county is today launching its bid to become a pioneer for use and production of hydrogen energy.
Experts will unveil Brighton’s hydrogen strategy this morning showing how the city and surrounding areas are championing a clean energy infrastructure.
With plans for a Worthing crematorium to become the first in the world powered entirely by hydrogen, development of a green energy production facility in Shoreham, and a growing fleet of hydrogen-powered buses in Crawley, the region is already breaking ground in the hydrogen industry – and shows no sign of stopping.
These are my thoughts.
The Plan Is Comprehensive
This document of the Council website, is entitled the Greater Brighton Hydrogen Strategy.
It is very comprehensive and discusses hydrogen in Sussex from all angles.
Every Council in the UK needs to have their own comprehensive strategy like this.
The Report Cautions That Greater Brighton May Need More Renewable Energy
Consider.
- The Rampion wind farm, with a capacity of 400 MW is already operating in the sea South of Brighton.
- This should be joined by the 1200 GW rampion 2 wind farm in the next few years.
It is unlikely substantial onshore wind and solar farms will be built in the area.
Gatwick Airport Is Expected To Need A Hydrogen Supply
The strategy says this about Gatwick and the two Rampion wind farms.
The offshore wind farm Rampion is large enough to be considered nationally significant infrastructure. There
is a second development for this wind farm planned for 2025-6, which will connect into Bolney substation as
per the existing wind farm.The GBEB energy plan suggested that an electrolyser could be sited there, although there are no identified demand locations nearby other than potential refuelling of passing traffic on the A23.
However, considering the relative distance to Gatwick airport, which is expected to be a significant future
demand, there may be an opportunity for a direct pipeline. This would be further into the future and requires
further analysis and bilateral engagement between Rampion and Gatwick. Engagement with Rampion found
that, given the large population supplied by the Rampion wind farms, and the relative lack of other large-scale
renewables locally, these wind farms are unlikely to face significant curtailment and will fully contribute to
decarbonising the local electricity grid. Therefore, using Rampion to produce hydrogen by electrolysis is not
seen as the best use case in the near term.
It looks to me, that because of the electricity demand in the Brighton and Gatwick area, that a big decision needs to be made to create some more renewable capacity.
Could this mean a Rampion 3 or perhaps a fleet of small modular nuclear reactors at Dungeness?
An Electrolyser At Bolney Substation
This Google map shows the position of Bolney substation.
Note.
- The A23 is the main London-Brighton road.
- Bolney substation is indicated by the red arrow.
- The substation doesn’t have very good road access.
- I also suspect that the locals wouldn’t like an electrolyser in their midst.
On a brief look, I suspect that an electrolyser at Bolney substation will be a non-starter.
Shoreham Port As A Hydrogen Hub
The strategy mentions Shoreham Port several times, but gives the impression that progress is slow.
This Google Map shows Shoreham Port.
Note.
- Shoreham is in the West.
- The port reaches a long way to the East.
- The 420 MW gas-fired Shoreham Power station, is at the Eastern end of the port, close to the sea.
There appears to be spaces along the water for developing hydrogen infrastructure.
This page on the H2Green web site is entitled Agreement to Develop Clean Energy Hub for Shoreham Port, Sussex, starts with this paragraph.
Getech, the geoscience and geospatial technology provider and data-led energy asset developer, is pleased to announce that its wholly owned hydrogen subsidiary, H2 Green, has signed a Collaboration Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Shoreham Port.
It lists these three highlights.
- H2 Green granted a two-year legally binding exclusive right to develop a renewable energy hub (the “Hub”) at the Port of Shoreham, West Sussex.
- Under plans submitted by H2 Green to Shoreham Port, the Hub will initially focus on the provision of green hydrogen and renewable electricity to the Port’s fleet of 39 heavy forklift trucks and 12 heavy goods vehicles.
- Green Hydrogen will be sourced by a scalable green hydrogen production, storage and refuelling facility – the economics of which will be optimised by its integration with new solar and wind electricity generation capacity.
- The Hub will then be expanded to facilitate the decarbonisation of more than 800 heavy goods vehicles that enter Shoreham Port daily, and to provide fuel to port and coastal marine vessels.
That is all good stuff, but I do wonder, where the renewable electricity is going to come from.
In Further Thoughts On BP’s Successful INTOG Bid, I looked at BP’s plan for a 50 MW wind farm.
- It will be about twenty miles offshore from Aberdeen.
- With an appropriate electrolyser 50 MW of electricity would produce twenty tonnes of hydrogen per day.
- The electrolyser could be onshore or even offshore.
- The technology has all been developed.
Could H2Green be thinking of developing a similar hydrogen production facility?
The Anonymous Widower 