The 4^th Annual H2-Aero Symposium is being held 2–3 April in Long Beach, California. Like each of the past meetings, this year’s symposium will feature two days of presentations, including sessions on fuel cell aircraft technology, demonstrations and hydrogen hubs for airports. In addition, interested attendees are invited to SAE International’s AE-5CH Hydrogen Airport Taskgroup meeting the day before, on Tuesday, 1 April.

The meeting of the SAE AE-5CH Hydrogen Airport Taskgroup, led by Jesse Schneider, CEO of ZEV Station, is open to SAE and VFS members, and interested conference participants. There is no additional charge to attend. A welcome reception is planned for Tuesday evening at a local business and a networking reception will be held Wednesday evening for attendees.

There are challenges in decarbonizing the aerospace industry, especially due to lightweighting and powertrain needs. Larger, heavier eVTOL aircraft that require more power for sustained flight need fuel cells with hydrogen, combined with batteries to achieve zero-emission, all-electric, long-range flights.

Despite the advantages of utilizing hydrogen, it still hasn’t been widely embraced as an accepted propulsion approach in North America. Though sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is a good transition fuel that helps to reduce CO₂, it does not answer all the questions for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and consumes more resources such as energy and water. Hydrogen, on the other hand, holds tremendous potential in this area as a mid- and long-term replacement of kerosene.

After the passage of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the US government has committed $8 billion to support the development of hydrogen hubs across America. In addition, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offered significant incentives for the large-scale use of hydrogen. Thus, there is great opportunity to utilize these resources towards outfitting hydrogen at airports.

Though hydrogen is standardized for ground vehicles, it is not yet at scale for use for aircraft. Other impediments include the lack of infrastructure, transporting hydrogen and high costs due to the scale of the industry today. The H2-Aero initiative is seeking to think outside the box, as it’s certainly possible to bring hydrogen at scale, especially in conjunction with other forms of transportation such as airport ground equipment.

The H2-Aero Team has published a whitepaper, “Multimodal H2-Airport Hub,” to cover the scenario for a Hydrogen Hub starting with ground vehicles and later scaling to support an airport with hydrogen aircraft through different scenarios of storage, distribution and production.

Although multiple hydrogen consortia and government bodies have published roadmaps, and the UK and European Union have made progress in this area, there has been little traction for hydrogen aviation in the US. The H2-Aero Team is engaging with government, industry and academic organizations to bring hydrogen for the range of aircraft—from eVTOL, eRotor, eSTOL, LTA and eCTOL—to the forefront, because aviation is one of the most challenging transportation industries to decarbonize and stands to benefit the most from hydrogen.