Hydrogen in airports: the 11 winners of H2 HUB AIRPORT are…

Hydrogen in airports: the 11 winners of H2 HUB AIRPORT are…

Groupe ADP, Air France-KLM, Airbus, the Île-de-France region with the support of Choose Paris Region, launched on February 11 a call for expressions of interest (AMI) called “H2 HUB AIRPORT” to explore the opportunities offered by hydrogen at Ile-de-France airports.

This initiative, with an international dimension, collected 124 applications and 11 laureates were selected.

Airbus has planned to manufacture a hydrogen aircraft by 2035. The airport environment will also change with a number of ground services that will run on hydrogen.

This call for expressions of interest highlighted three themes:

• Upstream in the value chain: production, storage, transport and distribution of hydrogen (gaseous and liquid) in airports;
• Downstream of the value chain: diversification of the uses and services of hydrogen in the airport and aeronautic fields (ground handling vehicles and equipment, rail transport at airports, energy supply to buildings or airplanes during stopover operations, etc.);
• The circular economy around hydrogen (recovery of the hydrogen dissipated during refueling with liquid hydrogen, upgrading of a co-product and a reaction to produce carbon-free hydrogen, etc.

The 11 winners of the “H2 HUB AIRPORT” call for expressions of interest are:

For the production, storage, transport and distribution of hydrogen:

– Air Liquide Advanced Technologies (France) : this Air Liquide subsidiary is developing a high performance liquid hydrogen refueling truck;

– Ecodrome (France) : this consortium offers multi-service supply solutions (hydrogen and electricity) that can serve the uses of general aviation aerodromes;  Geostock (France): this engineering group specializing in underground energy storage is working on solutions for storing very large quantities of hydrogen in lined mined cavities;

– Hylandair (France): this consortium of 4 manufacturers is proposing the development of a hydrogen ecosystem for uses on the city side (in mobility – trucks, buses, dumpsters, energy supply for buildings) and on the airside (passenger shuttles, ramp vehicles for ground handling);

– Sakowin (France) : this company is developing an innovative technology for producing hydrogen from methane, using a low-energy plasma process;

– Universal Hydrogen (United States) : this Californian startup aims to convert regional aircraft to hydrogen using modular liquid hydrogen capsules on board the aircraft.

For the diversification of uses in the airport and aeronautical fields:

– Hydrogen for Airport Handling (France, Germany): this consortium brings together 6 partners operating in the field of ground handling, designs runway vehicles (tractor, aircraft, loader, tractor baggage, generator) running on hydrogen;

– Use-In H2 (France): this consortium, bringing together 3 public partners, supports hydrogen deployment projects by proposing a risk analysis and recommendations in terms of safety and security;

– Plug Power (United States): this company specializing in fuel cell systems develops and markets runway equipment for ground handling.

For the circular economy around hydrogen:

– Absolut System (France): this specialist in cryogenics applied to space and aeronautics is developing solutions to optimize the quantity of hydrogen produced and stored, in particular through recovery systems 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.

Hydrogen in airports: the 11 winners of H2 HUB AIRPORT are …, May 28, 2021