Aircraft retrofitted with hydrogen fuel cells could slash CO2 emissions from small planes — and potentially pave the way for hydrogen jets, new study shows.

The first hydrogen-powered planes are taking flight::undefined

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    211·
    1 year ago

    I am no fan of Hydrogen as a fuel. At least not for cars. It takes more to make it and it can offer up as a fuel. All the proponents of hydrogen cars usually have ulterior motives.

    BUT… I think that changes for the the aviation industry. The fact remains that batteries are incredibly heavy and expensive and they simply are not power-dense enough. Those are all issues for a car, but even more so for a vehicle that flies. Hydrogen could very well be a reasonable alternative for the aviation industry. Hydrogen isn’t particularly “green” to produce now, but there have been advances to make it much more so in recent years. I could see that being the fuel of the future for planes.

    • ElegantBiscuit@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      Hydrogen would also work well for ships, trains, and to some extent trucks. Basically anywhere that requires long distance travel without infrastructure in between where batteries just don’t have the range or power to weight ratio to reach - at least not efficiently. And hydrogen is also specifically better for things connecting to a central transport hub, where the hydrogen production and storage and refueling can be centralized to minimize the infrastructure buildup and maximize production and storage efficiency. These would include ports, airports, trainyards, warehouses, sufficiently large bus terminals, basically everything except cars. And as a bonus it doesn’t require stripping the earth or rare metals, sometimes mined by slave and child labor.

    • CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz
      English
      1·
      1 year ago

      I definitely think hydrogen and batteries solve different problems, and we’re going to need both. Batteries have lower energy waste when recharging, and can handle power fluctuations better, while hydrogen has a far higher energy density, and scales much better to large scale storage. In addition, hydrogen tanks don’t wear out the same way as batteries after many empty-full cycles.

      This makes hydrogen very good for large scale applications, where the power requirements don’t fluctuate much.