Airbus Designs Hydrogen Plane Concept

[ronwagn + 6,290]

https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/21/airbus-unveils-concepts-for-zero-emission-planes-powered-by-hydrogen

Natural gas LNG would be the best choice for economy. Boeing has worked on a design also. 

 

Airbus unveils concepts for zero-emission planes powered by hydrogen

 

[Dan Clemmensen + 1,011]

The problem with H2 and LNG is the energy density per unit volume. For aircraft, this is the major drawback. This is a non-issue for large ships and for fixed installations.

It's really hard to beat kerosene (a.k.a. Jet fuel) for this purpose. Therefore, the simplest way to power a plane with green energy is to use kerosene generated from electricity from wind or solar. The nice thing about green kerosene it that it does not require the existing airliner fleet to be scrapped. The airline industry is currently grossly oversupplied with perfectly good aircraft. Of course, Airbus and Boeing would prefer to render them obsolete in order to keep selling new planes.

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

14 hours ago, ronwagn said:

https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/21/airbus-unveils-concepts-for-zero-emission-planes-powered-by-hydrogen

Natural gas LNG would be the best choice for economy. Boeing has worked on a design also. 

 

Airbus unveils concepts for zero-emission planes powered by hydrogen

 

The aviation industry has fallen into the green trap on emissions and struggles every single day, and spends millions, to keep the crosshairs off of them.  This is no exception.  Airbus knows very well that nothing will come of this, but they also know very well that they can turn this game to their advantage to get otherwise unobtainable subsidies from EU member countries, especially Germany.

Airbus has made HUGE product offering mistakes in the past (A340 & A380) that they are still paying off, or would still be paying off if the government subsidies weren't permanent.  They've paid the fines, after losing lawsuits brought about by Boeing and the U.S. Government for those subsidies, but those fines didn't amount to the cost of 2 A380s, so it was a good trade-off to get the subsidies and pay the fines.

If the greenies are going to shoot for the stars with outlandish regulations, the industry has simply decided that they will also shoot for the stars with their claims of heading for zero emissions.  Take care when reading any headlines about aviation making substantial headway towards any of these green goals.  Carbon offset taxes were forced on airlines flying in/out of Europe some years back and, as many readers on this site already figured out, it turns out that paying those offsets have now become a permanent tax that is passed on to the consumers.  Also, surprise, surprise: the taxes didn't make the emissions go away.  Who knew?  

All you have to do is read between the lines, for example in the article linked in the OP:

(Quote) It cautions however that "this level of fuel production could only be achieved with extremely large capital investments in sustainable aviation fuel production infrastructure,T and substantial policy support."

Faury stressed on Monday that "decisive action from the entire aviation ecosystem" as well as "support from government and industrial partners" will be needed for the company to reach its 2035 target.

The EU aims to become the world's first carbon-neutral region by 2050 and has made hydrogen a cornerstone of its strategy.

Hydrogen is a gas that makes up 75 per cent of the universe and which does not emit any carbon dioxide when used but it is difficult to isolate. A new European Clean Hydrogen Alliance aims to invest €430 billion until 2030 to scale up the hydrogen value chain across the Old Continent.  (End quote)

Edited September 23, 2020 by Dan Warnick