Getting Hydrogen in Airports – Who Are the 11 H2 HUB Airport Initiative Winners Making It Happen?

June 01, 2021

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by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) If you haven’t heard of the H2 HUB Airport initiative, there are some big names in the sustainable aviation industry who got together to launch this program and explore the opportunities offered by hydrogen and to boost air transport decarburization. We’re talkin’ Airbus, Air France-KLM, Groupe ADP, the Île-de-France Region and Choose Paris Region coming together to look at getting hydrogen into airport ecosystems.

In today’s Digest, a look at the 11 winners like Ways2H, Air Liquide’s Advanced Technologies, Hylandair, Sakowin, and others, what each of them brings to the table, what the initiative is all about, why and how they plan on getting hydrogen into airport ecosystems, and more.

The initiative
First, some background on the H2 HUB Airport initiative. Maybe you heard of their call for expressions of interest back in February, but if you didn’t, they asked for folks to send in applications focused on these three things:

Upstream of the value chain: production, storage, transport and distribution of hydrogen (gaseous and liquid) in the airport environment (storage systems, micro-liquefaction, aircraft fueling, etc.);
Downstream of the value chain: diversification of hydrogen uses and services in airport and aeronautical (ground handling vehicles and equipment, rail transport at airports, energy supply for buildings or aircraft during ground handling operations, etc.);
Circular economy around hydrogen (recovery of hydrogen dissipated during liquid hydrogen fueling, recovery of a by-product from a reaction to produce decarbonized hydrogen, etc.).

This initiative, with an international dimension and unprecedented in the air transport industry, received 124 applications and of those, 11 winners have been selected to contribute to the surge of the hydrogen airport ecosystem of tomorrow.

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For production, storage, transportation and delivery of hydrogen:

– Air Liquide Advanced Technologies (France): this Air Liquide’s subsidiary has developed a refueling truck with a large liquid hydrogen capacity;
– Ecodrome (France): this consortium, formed by 3 partners, proposes to set up a multi-service supply station (hydrogen and electricity) on general aviation airfields that can be used, for example, by electric passenger aircraft and hybrid land vehicles;
– Geostock (France): this engineering group specialising in underground energy storage works on a very large hydrogen storage solutions in lined mined cavities;
– Hylandair (France): this consortium of 4 industrialists has developed a gaseous hydrogen ecosystem for use as well on land side (trucks, buses, tippers, energy supply for buildings) and air side (passenger shuttle buses, ground support equipment, etc.);
– Sakowin (France): this company is developing compact reactors producing hydrogen in a decarbonized manner, based on an innovative technology using methane;
– Universal Hydrogen (United States): this Californian start-up aims to convert regional aircraft to hydrogen using modular liquid hydrogen capsules on board the aircraft.

For diversification of use cases in airports and in aeronautics:

– Hydrogen for Airport Handling (France, Germany): this consortium of 6 operating in the field of ground handling is designing hydrogen-powered ramp vehicles (aircraft tractor, loader, baggage tractor);
– Use-In H2 (France): this consortium, bringing together 3 public partners including the DGAC, supports hydrogen deployment projects by proposing a risk analysis and recommendations on safety and security. It also assesses the sustainability of the solutions implemented;
– Plug Power (United States): this company develops and markets ground support vehicles powered by fuel cells.

For circular economy around hydrogen:

– Absolut System (France): this specialist in cryogenics applied to space and aeronautics has developed solutions to optimize the quantity of hydrogen produced and stored via, in particular, systems for recovering dissipated hydrogen and mobile refrigeration;
– Ways2H (United States): this startup offers a patented solution for the local production of hydrogen from the reprocessing of waste, including organic and plastic waste, which is then gasified. READ MORE