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The boss of easyJet airline has led an aviation industry call for the UK government to put more public money into helping hydrogen-powered passenger planes get off the ground.
The low-cost airline on Monday joined an alliance of companies including Rolls-Royce, Airbus and GKN Aerospace in urging ministers to help fund the development of the nascent technology, which offers the possibility of flying with zero emissions in the coming decades but is commercially unproven.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet’s chief executive, said the UK had a “leading” hydrogen sector, but needed to improve its record in scaling up promising start-up technologies.
“We need to do something that the UK has not always had a good track record for — turning our innovative and exciting research and development into a long-term productive industrial sector,” he said.
The aerospace companies published a report on Monday acknowledging that the UK government had supported the sector through initiatives such as the Aerospace Technology Institute, the body that allocates state funding for innovation in civil aviation, but that significantly more help was needed.
“We need the conditions to be right. The right government policy, standards and regulations,” said Russ Dunn, chief technical officer of GKN Aerospace.
EasyJet and its long-term aircraft manufacturer Airbus have argued that hydrogen will be an important part of the aviation industry’s pledge to reach net zero by 2050, even as other airlines and Boeing have appeared more circumspect.
Airbus plans to have a zero-emissions hydrogen-powered plane ready for service by 2035 and is exploring four different concepts based on either hydrogen combustion or hydrogen fuel cell technology.
Matt Finch, UK policy manager at environmental NGO Transport & Environment, which is not part of the hydrogen alliance, said that while technical problems were being overcome, there were still “massive hurdles”, including around the supply of hydrogen to airports, as well as the certification of hydrogen-powered aircraft.
Airbus is working with airports, airlines and energy groups on ways to scale up the infrastructure needed to make hydrogen fuel a reality, but executives have warned that a lack of green production of the gas could hamper progress.
Alan Newby, director of research and technology at Rolls-Royce, said that finding a supply of hydrogen would be one of the industry’s biggest challenges.
“It is currently extremely hard to get hold of hydrogen . . . it is just not around,” he said.
Lundgren admitted the costs of developing and using hydrogen seemed “staggering”, but he expected the airline’s next aircraft order, due in the 2030s, to include hydrogen-powered planes.
While he said this could come from either Airbus or Boeing, the European manufacturer has placed a far greater emphasis on developing a hydrogen aircraft than its US rival.
Although the company has yet to finalise the size or range of the aircraft executives have previously suggested it will initially produce a regional or shorter-range aircraft that could seat about 100 passengers.
The call for more state support in the development of hydrogen technology echoes an aviation industry-wide push for government help in scaling up sustainable aviation fuels, which are less polluting than jet fuel and currently only available in small quantities.
The Department for Transport said hydrogen had an important role to play in the government-endorsed industry roadmap to net zero, adding: “We will continue to work with industry leaders to create a sustainable sector fit for the future — it’s great to see the Hydrogen in Aviation [alliance] leading the way.”
This post was originally published on Financial Times
