Airbus has partnered with London Gatwick, easyJet and Air Products to expand hydrogen capability and infrastructure in the UK.
Under the partnership, announced on July 18, London Gatwick will be brought into Airbus’ Hydrogen Hubs at Airports programme, which is aimed at expanding hydrogen infrastructure in aviation.
The partnership comes as Airbus is also working towards a target of bringing the world’s first hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft to market by 2035 under its ZEROe project. Airbus views setting up the appropriate infrastructure as key to enabling hydrogen-powered flights and sees the new partnership as a step towards this goal in the UK.
Under the Hydrogen Hubs at Airports framework, the partnership’s scope of work will cover liquid hydrogen supply and storage at the airport, refuelling and ground handling of hydrogen aircraft, as well as the exploration of shorter-term opportunities for using hydrogen at London Gatwick, the partners said.
They will now work together to establish how infrastructure to supply hydrogen could be introduced across the airport. This includes infrastructure for fuelling new types of aircraft.
The partners consider London Gatwick to be an ideal location for carrying out research and development (R&D) into critical support infrastructure for hydrogen-powered aviation thanks to the airport’s position as a UK hub for short- and medium-haul routes.
These are the routes that hydrogen-powered aircraft would initially be expected to be used on.
Air Products is the world’s largest supplier of hydrogen, while easyJet has operational expertise as a short-haul carrier.
Hydrogen production
Air Products is also planning to develop a green hydrogen production facility at Immingham, in the Yorkshire and the Humber region.
The company has said separately that it intends to supply green hydrogen produced at Immingham to its liquid hydrogen refuelling station in Crawley, where it would be used to fuel hydrogen fuel cell buses carrying passengers on routes in the Gatwick Airport, Crawley and Horley area.
Meanwhile, easyJet is already collaborating with Airbus, among others, on the Hydrogen South West initiative, aimed at fostering cross-sectoral partnerships to drive the development of hydrogen infrastructure and technology in Southwest England.
London Gatwick is part of the VINCI Airports network, which includes over 70 airports in 14 countries. Two other VINCI airports, Lyon Saint Exupery and Kansai, have also formed hydrogen hubs in partnership with Airbus to date.
Globally, Airbus has signed agreements with partners and airports across 13 countries to bring them into the Hydrogen Hub at Airports programme.
“Alongside sustainable aviation fuels, hydrogen stands out as having real potential to help us decarbonise Scope 3 emissions at the airport, particularly for the short haul aircraft that dominate London Gatwick’s operations,” stated London Gatwick’s CEO, Stewart Wingate. “In parallel we’ve accelerated our plans and aim to be net zero for the emissions we control – Scope 1 and 2 – ten years early, by 2030,” he added.
Airbus hydrogen goals
The other partners, meanwhile, talked up the importance of putting the necessary infrastructure in place as a stepping stone to the decarbonisation of the aviation sector.
Airbus’ vice-president of the ZEROe project, Glenn Llewellyn, noted that sharing “knowledge and best practice at airports will be critical for building the right hydrogen ecosystem around the world”.
The task at hand is considerable if Airbus is to reach its goal of launching hydrogen-powered flights by 2035. This will require not only new infrastructure, but also the skills needed to operate it and refuel hydrogen aircraft and reliable, affordable supplies of hydrogen.
The new partnership is designed to put these components into place at London Gatwick, but given that hydrogen-powered aviation is at such an early stage – as is low-carbon hydrogen production – there is a long way to go in terms of realising these ambitions.
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