Aviation H2 Project
Aviation H2 has announced the first test flights of an aircraft with a power plant that runs on hybrid fuel from hydrogen and ammonia in mid-2023. With a high probability, they will beat competitors, and this will be the first commercial flight on such fuel. The main advantage of this technology is that it is suitable for upgrading existing aircraft and their jet engines.
Hydrogen in the form of gas is not very good as a fuel, because it is explosive, and its liquefaction requires a lot of money, so the best way out is to convert hydrogen into ammonia. Hybrid fuel is obtained, which in the form of ammonia is used for storage in tanks during transportation, and when fed to the engine it is separated with the release of hydrogen, which burns as the main component. Aviation H2 engineers explain that this approach actually allows you to save the entire existing infrastructure for refueling aircraft, you just need to refine it. Instead of designing complex and dangerous hydrogen fuel cells.
Aviation H2 Project
However, ammonia is bad because hydrogen is combined with nitrogen in it, and dangerous nitrogen oxides are formed during their separation reaction. They cannot simply be thrown into the atmosphere, otherwise no expert commission will recognize such an engine as "green", so Aviation H2 is currently working on special filters. They have already successfully converted the engines themselves to work on hydrogen, for which they signed a contract with FalconAir, which is engaged in charter transportation. The aircraft for the tests has also already been selected — this is a 9-seat Dassault Falcon 50 business jet, which has three engines, but it can also fly on two. This will allow you to install one new motor and test it without unnecessary risk. As explained by the director of Aviation H2 Christoph Mayer, there are a lot of small aircraft in the world whose jet engines need major repairs every few thousand flight hours. If, instead, the engines are converted to run on hydrogen, this will become an attractive investment target and will bring the onset of a carbon-free era closer.
