Liquid Hydrogen's promise and critical technical constraints with hydrogen fuel cells in aviation.
Hydrogen presents a major opportunity to decarbonize aviation by replacing fossil paraffin, avoiding thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions, and actively combating global warming. While gaseous demonstrators have flown, current focus is on liquid hydrogen. This fuel offers three times the energy density of paraffin and produces only water vapour, but it introduces major technical constraints. Key challenges include managing extreme cold (-253°C), securing cryogenic tanks, mitigating leak risks, and establishing new refuelling logistics, all of which were topics of discussion at the recent Franco-Korean workshop.
The event, co-organised by ISAE-SUPAERO and the Korean company Hylium Industries, brought together major players from both countries, including Airbus, Safran and Liebherr Aerospace, Absolut Hydrogen, H3 Dynamics, H2Pulse, DELAIR, CT Engineering, ARESIA, AKIRA, FINIS TERRAE and others.
Quentin Barascude, Research and Technology Manager at H3 Dynamics presented on Hydrogen-powered drones, this session presented the concrete applications of hydrogen in light air mobility, with drones capable of flying twice as long as battery-powered ones.