Monday 11 April 2022
New partnership for green hydrogen refuelling stations at California airports
A new partnership that aims to develop green hydrogen refuelling infrastructure for airports in California has been announced.
ZeroAvia and ZEV Station have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to develop an initial regional airport project that showcases how hydrogen-electric propulsion systems can deliver zero-emission commercial flights.
The former company will use its significant research and development in hydrogen production and refuelling for aviation while the latter firm's team will share its experience in hydrogen for road vehicles to develop an innovative hydrogen airport refuelling system.
Under the partnership, ZeroAvia is planning flight demonstrations of hydrogen-electric aircraft from pilot airports, supported by the co-developed refuelling ecosystem and support from ZEV Station.
ZeroAvia has already developed a Hydrogen Airport Refuelling Infrastructure (HARE) as part of the HyFlyer projects along with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), demonstrating green hydrogen production through to airside fuelling.
It will start flight testing its hydrogen-electric powertrain using its Dornier-228 testbed aircraft, part of the HyFlyer II project, in the coming weeks, supported by the UK Government.
ZEV Station's charging-only test site is expected to open at the end of May while its first facility will both charging and hydrogen is targeted for operation in early 2023.
Arnab Chatterjee, VP, Infrastructure, ZeroAvia said: “There is enormous potential for airports to act as hydrogen hubs precisely because there will be significant demand—hydrogen-electric propulsion is the only practical, holistic and economically viable solution to the industry’s full climate impacts.
“California leads the world in the adoption of zero-emission vehicles thanks to forward-thinking policies and deployment of infrastructure and zero-emission flight infrastructure at airports is the next natural frontier. ZeroAvia’s partnership with ZEV Station is going to be a significant part of that journey.”
