From Zero to Hydrogen: The Future of Clean Energy Flight.

Has the time of Sustainable Aviation finally arrived? In this video I will tell you all about where we currently stand in the fight towards a more environmentally friendly Aviation industry with the help of SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) as well as Hydrogen driven aircraft.
I hope you will find the video Fascinating!
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[buttersPbutters]

It should be noted that after over 60 years of working with liquid hydrogen, NASA still struggles to get a good seal on fluid coupling interfaces, and they would never authorize ground personnel to be anywhere near the vehicle while it is being loaded with liquid hydrogen. During the Space Shuttle program, NASA learned that each time they load cryogenic propellant into the vehicle, the thermal contraction/expansion cycle affects the geometry enough to require certain bolts to be re-torqued in order to get a good seal the next time. Even though the new SLS rocket is similar to the Space Shuttle in many respects, it's different enough that they had to re-learn through trial and error how to tweak the bolts between thermal cycles. Commercial aviation is a lot less forgiving in this respect. If there's a way to close a cargo door incorrectly without a very obvious indication, a well-meaning worker will find that way. If NASA's technicians can't be sure that they've connected a fuel line so it won't leak, airport workers don't stand a chance.

[ravennightingale]

So rare to see a discussion of hydrogen that doesn't gloss over its issues and hype it up as a magical wonder solution. Thanks for the excellent video.

[theflyingturkey]

Oh wow! I flew that Dash-8-300 back in 2006 when I flew as an FO for Piedmont Airlines. N330EN... I thought I recognized that N number, and sure enough it's in my logbook. Nice to see it still flying!

[karlp]

The CSIRO in Australia has already determined the best way to store, transport and use hydrogen as a fuel is via Ammonia (NH3). It is a liquid at reasonably high temps and you can see it has 3 hydrogen atoms and one nitrogen. All the cryogenic and high pressurisation issues go away. The only potential problem is if you get a leak into the cabin, all the passengers and crew will also go away. Rather quickly.

[buttersPbutters]

The tail vent is not for abnormal leaks. Almost regardless of how well the tank is insulated, liquid hydrogen will gradually boil, increasing the pressure inside the tank. With the engines running at high power, this is fine because there needs to be a gas to fill the empty space in the tank as the liquid is consumed. In some cases, passive boil-off won't be sufficient for tank pressurization, requiring a heat exchanger to make extra gaseous hydrogen, called autogenous pressurization. But if the vehicle is sitting on the ground with engines off, there needs to be somewhere for the excess hydrogen gas to go to avoid overpressurizing and rupturing the tank.

For rockets sitting on the launch pad, this excess hydrogen gas vents through umbilical lines to a flare stack where it is safely burned off. Aircraft won't have that infrastructure. So they'll either be venting unburned hydrogen into the air, or that tail vent will need an ignition system to function as a flare stack, spitting fire out the top of the vertical stabilizer. When aircraft are parked overnight or for prolonged durations, they'd want to offload their liquid hydrogen, and for safety they'll need to fill the empty tank volume with an inert gas that's non-reactive with hydrogen, which would probably have to be helium. Liquid methane would be a lot easier (the Soviets figured that out). Liquid ethane would be even better, because it can be stored as a pressurized liquid at ambient temperature. But the advantages of storing non-pressurized liquid fuel in the wings are so great that sustainable aviation fuel ("green kerosene") will probably win out in the end.

[goffe]

I am really glad you talked about the problem with water vapour at hight altitudes. From what I understand it's one of the worst greenhouse gases.... which sounds counter intuitive.

[CharlieAlphaBravo]

Thank you for your work, Petter! Your videos are outstanding from any angle: the quality of the content and research behind, the quality of the graphics and your #absolutelyfantastic way to explain.

[julianwarhurst]

Fantastic Video! Interestingly Hans von Ohain's first Jet engine ran on Hydrogen because the extremely fast combustion speed simplified the design of the combustion chamber. Kelly Johnson worked with Pratt & Whitney on an engine burning Liquid Hydrogen for the CL400 project. That was the predecessor to the SR71 program and Kelly/Lockheed eventually returned much of the program money to the government and declared that it wasn't practical because not enough could be stored in the airframe. Traditional vacuum Dewar's had to be spherical or cylindrical and just couldn't be packed into wings and tails like conventional fuel tanks. Of course he was also aiming for Mach 3+ which brings a different set of challenges

[beepernet]

Great report. The major problem with hydrogen is that it is the smallest existing molecule and wants to leak everywhere. Many space launch scrub happened because of H2 leak. I hope that all technologies are there to secure fuel transfer in connectors, tubing. Good ventilation/sensors. I don't think we need burn-off igniters, lol, but H2 will always needs to be handle carefully. Easier to see a jet fuel leak than an hydrogen one. I hope this work, better to use energy hydrogen as battery than a "real" heavy weight one for aviation. Hydrogen just transport the energy, that energy has to come from elsewhere and the production ratio is not so good for renouvelable sources. We have working hydro-electrical hydrogen plant here where airport here can easily be obtained it, good. Thanks to the team.

[BlueJazzBoyNZ]

Anyone watching space flight will know that Hydrogen being so small is also very very very prone to leaks. Ref SLS issues

[christophemassart-weit]

As an retired airline pilot, I love tour way of thinking and teaching. I would have loved having you as instructor along my career. Thank's

[Adam-fjpx]

I commented a few videos ago about whatever aviation news I read mentour now always releases a video not long after going into more detail, and you've done it again! Keep up the good work

[PsRohrbaugh]

Minor nitpick: Kelvin does not use "degrees" - an increase of 1 degree Celsius is an increase of 1 Kelvin.

[mapleext]

Petter, I love your enthusiasm for possible new technologies in aviation. Your attitude of “We can do it!” Is a breath of fresh air. This was a very interesting video - I appreciate the back-story history of using hydrogen- and gives me a tad more hope concerning our environment problems. Keep up the stellar work!!

[Deltarious]

Hydrogen infrastructure and logistics are *so* difficult that it brings into question whether hydrogen powered aircraft will be possible at all. It *already* seems as though when you run the numbers it's not viable for cars and ground based transportation systems generally. Aircraft and airports in particular *are* much more suited to it, but as far as I am aware it is still debatable and a relatively close call on whether we can actually make that practical and sustainable or not.

[wwtom]

I read "Skunk Works" by Ben Rich who worked for then later took over when Kelly Johnson retired. In it he describes how Kelly looked into using Hydrogen to power the SR-71up there at 100, 000 ft & Mach 3 but it proved too difficult and expensive and they gave it up. I don't think it would be any different now.

[WillMoody-crmstorm]

Was glued to that all the way through. Fascinating 👍

[calarndt]

Good job Petter, suprised you took on such a "flammable" topic!

[ditzygypsy]

Seeing the compost trash at the beginning in conjunction with talking about fuel for jets immediately made me think of Doc Emmett Brown going through the trash (at the end of Part 1/beginning of Part 2 of Back to the Future) to find a banana peel and some other waste to put in the Delorean…which had been upgraded to be able FLY!