H2 View understands, the 50:50 venture hopes to provide airports with the engineering and services required to transition to hydrogen. With commercial hydrogen-powered aircraft expected by 2035, the need for infrastructure to accommodate the clean fuel is growing.

The partners have said their services will hope to meet all the challenges airports face ahead of integrating hydrogen, including:

required volumes of hydrogen.
the optimal supply chain based on individual airport characteristics.
scope and pre-installation work for hydrogen infrastructure.
preliminary safety studies.
costing and investment roadmaps.
carbon impact assessments.

This announcement follows a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed in 2021, to carry out feasibility studies to assess potential configurations for hydrogen production, supply, and distribution at airports.

Read more: Air Liquide, Airbus, Groupe ADP prepare airports for the hydrogen era

The 2021 project covering 30 airports across the globe, with particular focuses on Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly, identified several hydrogen production and supply chain patterns that can be utilised in airport infrastructures, the companies said.

Matthieu Giard, Vice-President, member of the Executive Committee, at Air Liquide, said, “Hydrogen is necessary to tackle the challenge of the energy transition. Studies carried out with Groupe ADP over the last year have confirmed hydrogen can have a major contribution to decarbonise the airport sector.

“Airports have to be ready for hydrogen-powered aircrafts by 2035, and to foster the emergence of a hydrogen mobility ecosystem at large. This is why now is the time to work on adapting infrastructures.

“Air Liquide and Groupe ADP therefore project to create the first joint venture specialised in this field, building on our initial collaboration and pooling the complementary expertise of our two Groups.”

Air Liquide has said it will leverage its experience in hydrogen production, electrolysis, liquefaction, storage, and distribution for the project, while Groupe ADP plan to contribute its expertise in airport engineering and knowledge of airport operations.

Edward Arkwright, Deputy CEO at Groupe ADP, said, “Having worked together with Air Liquide to produce studies over the past year, this joint venture was a logical next step.

“With it, we expect to have the first ground-based hydrogen technology use cases in place at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports in 2023.

“Our collaboration with Air Liquide is a long-term one and is based on the complementarity of our respective expertise: the hydrogen supply chain for Air Liquide and airport infrastructure and operations for Groupe ADP.”