Said to be the first trial of its kind to take place at a “major UK airport,” the so-called Project Acorn saw ground handlers DHL refuel a Mulag baggage tractor, equipped with a Globe fuel cell powertrain with hydrogen.
BOC-supplied compressed hydrogen was dispensed by Fuel Cell Systems’ HyCube refuelling unit, filling the tractor’s tanks to 250 bar in three minutes, allowing it to operate for two to three hours.
The tractor was used to transport passenger luggage to and from easyJet’s aircraft.
Cranfield Aerospace Solutions, Cranfield University, Connected Places Catapult (CPC), IAAPS, Jacobs and TCR were also on the ground to support the trial in collaboration with the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
Lahiru Ranagsinghe, Head of Net Zero at easyJet, said the project was a “small but critical step” in both building the airline’s understanding and the aviation industry’s knowledge of how to use hydrogen in a “live airside environment.”
“We are providing guidance to share with our peers across the industry,” he said. “We aim to use our insights to form the creation of policy and regulation needed to accelerate the hydrogen ecosystem development across the UK.”
The trial comes after easyJet, alongside Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Ørsted, GKN Aerospace, Bristol Airport and ZeroAvia, as the Hydrogen in Aviation (HIA) alliance, released a report calling for more regulatory and policy support.
Read more: HIA report a ‘vital component in decarbonising the aviation sector,’ says easyJet CEO
Upon the report’s release, Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, warned breakthroughs in hydrogen technology would be “inconsequential” if they are not complemented with the “appropriate skills, infrastructure, investment and regulation needed to support them in aviation.”
In 2022, easyJet and Rolls-Royce carried out the “world’s first” run of a modern aero engine on hydrogen.
Read more: Rolls-Royce and easyJet complete ‘world’s first’ jet engine test run on hydrogen
Net Zero Airports: Ready for take-off?
With hydrogen-powered aircraft having taken to the skies, attention is turning to establishing airport infrastructure and technologies.
Although technologies destined to provide aircraft with the means to fly on clean energy are edging towards commercial viability, with test flights from both ZeroAvia and Universal Hydrogen having taken place in the early part of 2023, as with many sectors and end-uses of hydrogen, the aviation industry is calling for further onus on developing infrastructure to facilitate flight.
The sheer hub and spoke-based nature of airports forces the question of whether these locations could play an even more significant role in the development of the hydrogen industry.
According to a report by gasworld, in a high-use US scenario, total hydrogen demand in aviation could reach 90,000 tonnes per day or more by 2040, with the medium- and low-use scenarios predicting 50,000-53,000 and 30,000 to 32,000 tonnes per day, respectively1. In order to achieve the infrastructure capable of delivering the high volumes of hydrogen required, a steady build-out of transportation and refuelling systems will be needed.
However, while hydrogen-powered flight remains in its infancy, the potential for existing airport operations to be run on hydrogen, utilising infrastructure that will be required for future aircraft, becomes a strong possibility…
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