ZeroAvia and
Birmingham Airport plan for zero-emission flights
TAGS: Birmingham Airport, Hydrogen-Electric Flight, Sustainability, ZeroAvia
Feb 21, 2023 - 7:00 am
SHARE:
Zero-emission, hydrogen-powered air
travel is the aim of a new partnership between ZeroAvia and Birmingham Airport
(BHX).
The companies have entered into a
long-term partnership to make on-airfield hydrogen refuelling and regular
domestic passenger flights of zero-emission aircraft a reality in the coming
years.
ZeroAvia is a leader in
zero-emission technologies including hydrogen-electric engines for aircraft,
with a prototype successfully test-flown at its base in Kemble,
Gloucestershire, in January. Hydrogen-electric engines use hydrogen in fuel
cells to generate electricity, which is then used to power electric motors to turn
the aircraft’s propellers. The only emission is water.
2025 target
ZeroAvia is currently working on
bringing to market a zero-emission system capable of flying 20-seat aircraft
300 nautical miles by 2025.
This opens up the possibility of
green air travel from Birmingham to destinations such as Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Aberdeen, Belfast, Isle of Man and Dublin by the middle of this decade.
In a move that would make
zero-emission travel to Mediterranean holiday destinations a reality, ZeroAvia
is aiming to get an emissions-free engine for 80-seat aircraft, flying up to
700 nautical miles by 2027, achieving distances of up to 1000 nautical miles
soon after.
For BHX, the partnership with
ZeroAvia sits alongside its own journey to become a net-zero-carbon airport by
2033, as outlined in its ‘carbon roadmap’* published in 2022.
Refuelling infrastructure
The airport plans to use an area on
its airfield for hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, testing and operations.
“Birmingham Airport can be a central
hub in a green flight network in the UK, given that any domestic mainland
destination will be reachable from the airport using our first systems in
2025,” said Arnab Chatterjee, VP, Infrastructure, ZeroAvia.
“Given the commitments of the Jet
Zero Strategy on domestic aviation, it is fantastic to engage with
forward-thinking airports that want to be early innovators and developers to
deliver the vision of bringing truly clean, quiet and pollution-free flights to
the UK.”
Simon Richards, Chief Finance &
Sustainability officer at BHX, said: “We are thrilled to partner with ZeroAvia
on creating solutions to the main challenge of our generation – protecting the
future of our planet. We could, quite conceivably, see the first hydrogen-powered
domestic passenger flight taking off from BHX in the UK in the next few years.
That’s mind-blowing.”
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar
Merk: Bare medlemmer av denne bloggen kan legge inn en kommentar.