Airbus ZEROe Engine, a new full hydrogen fuel cell-powered engine that it plans to attach to existing jet aircraft.
Airbus ZEROe, a hydrogen fuel cell-powered engine for zero emission jet travel. Image T20Over the past few years, the airline industry, much like many other carbon-intensive industries, has seen increased scrutiny over how much pollution it puts into the atmosphere. While not as bad as maritime shipping, the pollution that the airline industry puts out annually makes up 2.8% of all cO2 created worldwide. Airbus, like many other companies, is having pressure being put on it by governments, shareholders, and everyday citizens to do better. Its response to this public outcry is ZEROe, a full hydrogen fuel cell-powered engine that it plans to attach to its jet planes.
The airplane it is attaching to this engine is the A380 commercial jet, one of the most aerodynamically stable planes it has in its fleet. They attached the pod holding the hydrogen fuel cells to the rear fuselage and are very confident that they will have the plane completing its tests successfully.
This is part of its broader plan to use hydrogen fuel cells for its entire fleet of aircraft, not just a combination of traditional combustible fuels and hydrogen fuel cells. The company says that it may be able to have a 100-person plane be able to fly 1,000 nautical miles on hydrogen fuel alone, undoubtedly a daunting task. The reason for this doubt is that hydrogen fuel is significantly less energy-dense than kerosene, which is how most planes are powered today. However, as the pressure continues to mount, it hasn’t discouraged Airbus and other airline service companies from creating innovative solutions to address the problem of cO2 emissions in their industry.
Airbus has ambitious goals ahead of itself, as they plan to have their first test flights in 2026, and the first fully operational zero-emissions aircraft will take off in 2035. And while the transition to fully zero emissions aircraft is still a long way away, the beginning of this transition would start with short-haul flights, which still make up a significant portion of the emissions generated by this industry.
All innovations are of utmost importance in the era of clean technology, and Airbus is showing its industry how it could be done.
