GREEN FUELS DISSONANCE

Airbus aims to have commercial hydrogen-powered aircraft on the market by 2035 and has been actively developing a number of hydrogen technologies. According to an Airbus announcement from September 2020, three commercial hydrogen-powered airplanes will be created by the year 2035.

These aircraft will have a turbofan design for medium-haul flights, a turboprop design for short-haul flights, and a blended-wing body design with 200 person capacity for long-haul flights.

For its hydrogen-powered airplane, Airbus is creating a key technology known as ‘Power-byWire’. In this technology, traditional hydraulic and pneumatic systems are replaced by fuel cell-powered electronic systems. Power-by-Wire allows for increased energy economy and weight reduction, which results in a greater payload and range.

To reac the goal of a zero-emission aircraft, Airbus wants its hydrogen-powered aircraft to run without producing any emissions.This is done using hydrogen as the fuel supply; when burned, evidently it only produces heat and water vapor.

Airbus is working with a number of partners to develop the essential hydrogen infrastructure that will allow its hydrogen-powered aircraft.

To do this, networks for hydrogen generation and delivery must be established, as well as ground-based equipment for transport and storage.

The 200-passenger, 2,000-nautical-mile-range ZEROe hydrogen-powered turbofan prototype is being developed by Airbus right now.

By 2025, the company will start evaluating what they called the ZEROe display.

Airbus is investing a lot of capital in the research and development of hydrogen technologies because it believes – contrary to Boeing – that hydrogen is the essential part of the decarbonization of the aircraft industry.

The company is developing a fast pace a number of technologies and its own internal solutions, such as fuel cells, in order to be ready to sell the first commercial aircraft fully powered by hydrogen by 2035.

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In contrast to Airbus, Boeing has been actively exploring the development and usage of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) putting its aircraft through a lot of testing and certification for SAF, including demonstration flights with commercial airlines.

Early in 2018, Boeing used an All-Nippon Airways-operated Boeing 787 Dreamliner to complete the first commercial flight in history to be powered entirely by SAF. Since then, Boeing has collaborated with all airlines using its models and fuel suppliers to expand the use and availability of SAF.

Boeing has set a target to equip its airplanes with the ability to operate entirely on SAF by 2030. To facilitate the usage of SAF, the company is developing new aircraft technologies, such as hybrid propulsion systems.

The Boeing ‘Eco Demonstrator’ program has tested a variety of SAF mixes (agricultural waste essentially) to gauge how they operate and affect emissions.

On January 3, 2023, General Electric and NASA jointly announced that ground testing of the GEnx engine's use of 100% SAF had just been completed. A Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner aircraft was powered by a GEnx engine from General Electric. The tests, according to the engine manufacturer, were a further step toward gaining a deeper grasp of SAF's operational characteristics.

Boeing is determined to accelerate the application of SAF. However, it is not completely ignoring hydrogen and continues to monitor it closely. And Boeing cannot stop observing Airbus’ progress so that it is ready in case hydrogen develops faster than SAF, which is currently not at all obvious.