GOLIAT Project to Explore Use of Liquid Hydrogen in Aviation

Dark/Light Mode (20/05/24)  An innovative project has been launched to demonstrate small-scale liquid hydrogen aircraft ground operations at three European airports.

The project is currently scheduled to last for four years and is aiming to demonstrate how high-flow liquid hydrogen (LH2) handling and refuelling technologies can be developed and used safely and reliably for airport operations.

As a clean and efficient fuel, LH2 offers a promising solution for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with airport operations and their dependence on fossil fuels.

Airbus believes that hydrogen will be an important fuel for the future of short-haul aviation

LH2’s high energy density enables long-range travel for aircraft, yet there are many steps to the widespread deployment of hydrogen at airports, including the need to better understand the operational, regulatory, economic and safety impacts, as well as the capacity and performance of technologies.

“We continue to believe that hydrogen will be an important fuel for the future of short-haul aviation,” said Karine Guenan, Vice President of ZEROe Ecosystem, Airbus. “We welcome the opportunity to help build the operating case for the widespread daily use of liquid hydrogen at airports.”

The benefits of hydrogen in aviation include:

- Hydrogen is a high-potential technology with a specific energy-per-unit mass that is three times higher than traditional jet fuel. If generated from renewable energy through electrolysis, hydrogen emits no CO2 emissions, thereby enabling renewable energy to potentially power large aircraft over long distances without the undesirable by-product of CO2 emissions.

- Because hydrogen has a lower volumetric energy density, the visual appearance of future aircraft will likely change to better accommodate hydrogen storage solutions that will be bulkier than existing jet fuel storage tanks.

- Hydrogen has been safely used in the aerospace and automobile industries for decades. The aviation industry’s challenge is to adapt this decarbonised energy carrier to commercial aviation’s needs.

There are two primary uses for hydrogen in aviation:

Hydrogen Propulsion: Hydrogen can be combusted through modified gas-turbine engines or converted into electrical power that complements the gas turbine via fuel cells. The combination of both creates a highly efficient hybrid-electric propulsion chain powered entirely by hydrogen.

Synthetic Fuels: Hydrogen can be used to create e-fuels, which are generated exclusively through renewable energy.

GOLIAT launch meeting. Picture: Airbus

The GOLIAT (Ground Operations of LIquid hydrogen AircrafT) consortium is made up of ten partners from eight countries: Airbus (France, Germany and UK), Chart Industries (Czech Republic and Italy), TU Delft (Netherlands), Leibniz University Hannover (Germany), Royal Schiphol Group (Netherlands), Rotterdam The Hague Airport (Netherlands), Vinci Airports (France and Portugal), Stuttgart Airport (Germany), H2FLY (Germany), and Budapest Airport (Hungary).

The GOLIAT project will receive funding of €10.8 million from the EU’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme via CINEA, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency.

“We are very pleased to join the GOLIAT team and to contribute our expertise on techno-economics of green LH2 supply infrastructures to the project. Such demonstrators are not only an important step towards making H2-powered aviation a reality, but also provide valuable insights for the future development of a cost effective and reliable LH2 supply chain,” said Richard Hanke-Rauschenbach, Head of Institute of Electric Power Systems, Leibniz University Hannover. “Identifying the requirements for the infrastructure as early as possible is crucial to the success of our joint efforts towards a more climate-friendly air transport system.”

The project will support the aviation industry’s adoption of LH2 transportation and energy storage solutions by:

- Developing and demonstrating LH2 refuelling technologies scaled-up for future large commercial aircraft;

- Demonstrating small-scale LH2 aircraft ground operations at airports;

- Developing the standardisation and certification framework for future LH2 operations;

- Assessing the sizing and economics of the hydrogen value chains for airports.

“Leveraging our experience in the HEAVEN project, where we completed the world's first piloted flight of a liquid hydrogen-powered electric aircraft, we look forward to contributing our expertise in LH2 operations to GOLIAT,” said Josef Kallo, co-founder and CEO, H2FLY. “We believe in the potential of hydrogen to transform aviation and are committed to supporting its adoption for a sustainable future. GOLIAT marks another important step in our journey toward decarbonizing the aviation industry, and we are excited to be part of this important initiative.”

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