Airbus to build hydrogen aircraft in 2035
Airbus has announced that it will be investing heavily in hydrogen propulsion in the future. By 2035, the aircraft manufacturer wants to bring a hydrogen-powered aircraft with zero emissions to market. In fact, Protolabs' recent Horizon Shift study shows that environmental factors are critical to the aerospace industry's post-Covid-19 recovery.
Airbus plans to launch a hydrogen-powered aircraft with zero emissions as early as 2035. As the Airbus-According to Grazia Vittadini, head of technology at Airbus, at a press conference in Toulouse, a first demonstrator is to be designed in just under three years, which is to fly for the first time in 2025. In the recent past, Airbus had focused primarily on electric aircraft powered by e-motors or hybrid systems. The company has since switched to hydrogen "because it's incomparably lighter than batteries," said Glenn Llewellyn, vice president of the Zero Emissions Project at Airbus. The energy density is as high as kerosene, with much less weight, he said. However, at the same temperature, the volume of stored hydrogen is four times higher.
Cleaner fuels and less bureaucracy
The pressure on the aircraft industry to reduce CO2 emissions is increasing. Along with the consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic, this is one of the biggest challenges for manufacturers. Bjoern Klaas, VP and Managing Director of Protolabs EMEA, in a comment, "For the aerospace industry, the Corona crisis meant a significant downturn. Many other industries were and still are affected by its impact. However, the aerospace industry in particular is showing signs of fundamental change. The industry is not only concerned with the fact that flights are currently operating at low capacity. The industry is also increasingly focusing on efforts to reduce emissions as much as possible. To meet the demands of both society and politics, developers and engineers are specifically looking for lighter materials, cleaner fuels and other innovative alternatives."
With the previous answer of reducing the consumption of gas turbines by making the rotors ever larger, the EU climate targets no longer seem achievable. At the same time, the technology is reaching its limits because of the extremely high speeds of the rotor ends. "Only through fundamental work on these adjusting screws can the far-reaching goals in the fight against climate change also be achieved. But we can also see that manufacturers and companies would like to see far-reaching concessions from governments. Only through additional bureaucracy reduction and more flexibility with regard to the manufacturing process can the necessary progress be made in a short time," explains Klaas from Protolabs EMEA.
That's why Airbus is also working on the use of liquid hydrogen. This would have a much smaller volume, but would have to be cooled to minus 253 degrees Celsius. The rocket manufacturer Ariane Group, creator of the Ariane rocket, already cooperates with the utility Engie and Airbus on the subject of hydrogen liquefaction.
