Why Hydrogen-Powered Planes Might Be Inevitable

Hydrogen has long been touted as the fuel of the future, but it’s never quite taken off. Meet the scientists and entrepreneurs who are making it a reality.

#Accelerate #Aviation #BloombergQuicktake
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[jeremiahcutright]

For anyone confused about the "hydrogen is 3 times as energy dense as jet fuel" vs the "hydrogen is less energy dense than jet fuel" statements made: Hydrogen is more energy dense by WEIGHT but far less energy dense by VOLUME.

[FrancoCastro]

I feel Hydrogen would be a great choice for big tankers and cargo ships. Where weight and space isn't much of a constraint. For airplanes I don't think we will see much of a change in a few decades.

[Validole]

Fluff piece, an executive in the field mixing up energy density and specific energy... Yes hydrogen has more energy per mass than jet fuel. Unless you include the pressure vessel you need for storage, and the loss of cargo space, due to the low density.

[solexxx]

The energy required to make the liquified hydrogen from water is greater that the energy produced. Storing hydrogen as a gas or liquid requires extreme high pressures and the hydrogen molecule is so small it leaks through any tank. Fuel cells use rare expensive elements that are cost prohibitive.

[christophvonwaldhuf]

It’s not just the fueling structure that’s the reason hydrogen didn’t take of.
There is also the fact that hydrogen is very hard to store because it such a small molecule and will escape almost every container over time.
Second is the very inefficient production of hydrogen.
Third is supply and demand.
„Because we could use hydrogen for everything that doesn’t mean we should use it“

[thomaskline]

Many experiments have been done with H^2 as an aviation fuel. Storage is not the only problem mainly Bleed off thru subduction. But the main problem is Hydrogen embrittlement of engine components.

[mannyalejo]

The most practical way to store hydrogen is to react it with carbon dioxide to form a hydrocarbon that is liquid at atmospheric temperature and pressure. The future of aviation is synthetic hydrocarbon jet fuel produced using renewable energy instead of fossil fuel sourced jet fuel.

[williamhaynes]

There are so many a-380's that are parked by airlines now days that you could pick one up cheaper and test with it,

[rayoflight]

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe (except on Earth), just like nuclear fusion is the most common method of generating power in the Universe (except on Earth).
You opened the video with a skewed truth, and kept going for the rest of it.
An hydrogen powered airplane is impossible to build, because the weight of tanks to store compressed hydrogen are simply too heavy for airborne vehicles.
It is possible to use cryogenic hydrogen for aircrafts, but it become a problem for long haul flights, because of evaporation...

[xDanossx]

2:00 I find it quite revealing that he says the energy density of hydrogen is 3 times higher thant that of jet fuel, and doesn't care to mention that the energy density of hydrogen by volume is 6 to 7 times lower than that of jet fuel. Thats a big design problem for hydrogen in Aviation.

[bonza]

Well that's a big backflip!

1:40 The energy density of hydrogen as fuel is 3 times that of jet fuel...

5:50 the energy density of hydrogen is less then jet fuel...

[VoidHalo]

You wanna know how you can immediately identify articles that are overhyping technology stories? When they use tentative language like MIGHT BE or COULD or MAY or any other such synonym. I speak from experience of 20 years of reading/watching stories like this. Stories about tech that are written by people who clearly have no idea about technology.

[موسى_]

It's three times as dense, yet it's less dense? Man, don't use energy density for energy/mass, only for energy/volume! Energy/mass is called specific energy!

[osterreichischerflochlandl]

As an elektrical engineer I still ask myself how the replacement should work for planes like the A320-neo.
* 24'000ltr Kerosin (240 MWh) whould need to be replaced by 7200 kg H2 with at least (!) 73'000ltr of volume even when liquified.
* The A320 has about 2700l/h consumption, i.e. 27MW. With an efficacy of e.g. 70% this means about 19MW mechanical power. Replacing that with an electric engine would mean about 172 to weight compared to about 2x2.6 to of the existing engines.

Sorry, I don't get it how that shall be replaced with H2.

[canadian]

Well, you are partially correct. The actual commercial aircraft will use a hybrid fuel of 20% hydrogen together with 80% ammonia. Ammonia is a much better container of hydrogen than hydrogen itself, but its combustion is slow so it requires something else like hydrogen to be added into the mix to speed up the combustion process.

[brendonpitcher]

"energy density of hydrogen is 3x jet fuel"
"the energy density of hydrogen is less than jet fuel"

[austinharding]

Put the electrolyser on board the plane, then produce hydrogen on demand from stored water tanks, no high pressure h
Hy tanks, the oxygen split can be used for combustion, with pure oxygen there's no nox emissions, which come from combusting with oxygen from the atmosphere. But then you need a generator for the electrolyser, so yea. Scram jet tech is the best bet here, no hydrogen production required

[DataSmithy]

One major advantages of putting the fuel in the fuselage, vs the wings, is that the wings can become *much* less heavy, and also quite a bit thinner, since they are no longer carrying the weight of the fuel, significantly improving the efficiency of the aircraft both by weight and air friction. Retrofitting existing jet aircraft as described in this video does not give you this advantage, but if this plan works, the *next* generation of hydrogen aircraft are 100% certain to take advantage of this.

[TheTalkWatcher]

The solution is not hydrogen. The solution is to go nuclear. Nuclear powered passenger planes are what we need.

[vangelissotiropoulos]

I don’t see how any of this is making actual sense yet