NEW YORK – Much of the attention around electric aircraft involves moving beyond small, regional-hopping passenger planes into the long distance territory of jumbo jets. The US-UK startup ZeroAvia is one stakeholder leaning on hydrogen fuel cells to do the heavy lifting. That’s going to take a while to scale up. In the meantime, the company is also looking into the idea of tapping into new opportunities to decarbonize smaller airfields in Europe. That could provide a counterbalance to the flight-shaming movement, which advises ground travel for regional trips.
Before we get to those smaller airfields, let’s take a look at the big picture. CleanTechnica has been following the development of electric aircraft alongside the development of sustainable aviation fuels. Both have faced significant challenges, but year by year there have been signs of progress in both fields (see our sustainable aircraft archive here).
So far it’s been a three-way race between hydrogen fuel cells, battery packs, and biobased liquid fuels. More recently, the liquid fuel space has expanded to include electrofuels, which refers to synthetic fuels made from hydrogen and carbon. From a planet saving perspective that’s a no-go, considering that the global hydrogen supply is sourced primarily from natural gas or gasified coal. However, the emerging green hydrogen market is beginning to turn the tables.
We’re guessing that no single winner emerges, but that remains to be seen. The US Air Force, for example, started off with bio-based liquid fuels in the early 2000’s, and now it is exploring batteries, fuel cells, and electrofuels as well.
To add yet another wrinkle to the mix, the US Air Force recently designated X-plane status on a Boeing-NASA hookup aimed at developing a radical new fuel efficient aircraft design. The X-plane designation means that the Air Force has determined that the new technology has potential for military applications, though it’s still in the experimental stage.
