Universal Hydrogen

All of the students and organizers in Mojave for the autonomous UAV competition really enjoyed learning about hydrogen and seeing the iron bird ! They asked great questions and were so interested that they all decided to pose for a picture in front of it. We talked with students from Cal State LA, CSU Bakersfield, San Diego State, and Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay, plus we were parked in front of Voyager so we got a good number of intrigued strangers as well. All were very optimistic about the future of hydrogen !

Today, we want to highlight our unique end-to-end modular solution for hydrogen aircraft refueling. Our solution is unique because we will transport liquid hydrogen - in modules - using the existing logistics freight network, from green hydrogen production sites to airports around the world. Those airports then become instantly 'hydrogen ready' because no new infrastructure is necessary, and offers a safe solution which meets current aircraft turnaround times. Stay tuned for more on logistics and ground operations development for our LH2 modular supply solutions.

This is Lightning McClean – our hydrogen powered De Havilland Dash8-300 flight test bed that is allowing us to grow the technologies to certify our STC (Supplemental Type Certificate) on the ATR72.  With one of the turbine engines replaced by our proprietary Megawatt scale full hydrogen electric powertrain, Lightning McClean’s first flight took place on March 2nd 2023. It has completed 13 flights since then, setting multiple world records along the way, including the most powerful as well as the highest hydrogen electric powertrain (>10,000 ft !) ever flown. And that is just the start… Stay tuned for more exciting flight tests coming up !

We are excited to share with everyone that we are now 30.000 members in our LinkedIn community ! And 30.000 is such a special number for us. Did you know that it is the same number of kilograms of CO2 that only one of our hydrogen fuel cell powered ATR72s will spare our beloved planet of, in only five days of operation ? So, we are now 30.000 together looking towards the same objective : to decarbonize aviation. 💚 🛫   We'd like to thank everyone who follows and supports us on this exciting and challenging journey - together, we’re taking meaningful steps towards decarbonizing air travel and building a greener future. Stay tuned for more exciting updates as we continue our journey towards cleaner skies.

Ever wondered how our liquid hydrogen modules will be transported to airports safely and efficiently ? 🚚 Well, every hydrogen module is smart and connected, transmitting the parameters of the cryogenic hydrogen inside (temperature, pressure, quantity...), module GPS coordinates and health status in real time. This enables live monitoring of the module integrity, predictive maintenance and logistics optimization. 💻 With this goal, we have prototyped the hardware and software needed to monitor modules remotely. Here is our first functional prototype that we are using to transmit module parameters in real time, 24/7, to our cloud based platform. Thanks to real time monitoring, we are also able to make ad hoc adjustments to our logistics transportation flow and ensure on-time, safe delivery to our zero emissions hydrogen fuel cell powered ATR72s that will be taking to the skies soon… 🛫 🌎 🌱     #sustainableaviation

Cryogenic hydrogen storage in aviation presents a challenging engineering problem : the volume of the storage tank needs to be maximized, but its mass optimized to be light, yet robust, for safe flight. One of the key optimization parameters is defined as the ‘mass fraction’, corresponding to the mass of hydrogen stored divided by the total mass of the module filled with hydrogen. It’s an engineering problem that we have tackled head on with our innovative module design that optimizes the volume of the hydrogen inner vessel (and thus quantity of hydrogen) within an aluminium double walled tank, complete with H2 extraction, conditioning and control systems, all integrated inside a protective module structure. Despite this high level of functionality, the mass fraction of the final module design is above 25%... A game changer compared to what exists today. And most importantly… It's designed to be perfectly integrated in a hydrogen fuel cell powered ATR72.

Congrats to Peter Barrett and Playground Global on this outstanding success with a sister portfolio company in a very different -- but equally world-changing -- sector. Thank you for your support.

During filling of a liquid hydrogen tank that is lightweight enough to fly on an aircraft, cryogenic hydrogen gas is expelled, resulting in filling losses. So directly refueling aircraft at airports with liquid hydrogen would result in approximately 15% of filling losses ! This is not only costly, but also a significant quantity of hydrogen that needs to be managed (e.g. by compressing and storing it, or venting as in the picture below). With our modular hydrogen solution, the entire cryogenic filling process is taken away from airports, allowing much slower filling hence reduced expelled hydrogen that can then be recovered by our filling facility. Simpler, safer, cheaper !

"My dream job growing up was to be chief engineer at Boeing. I fantasized what my new airplane would look like, devoured books about legendary airplane designers, and ordered every piece of Boeing swag in its online gift shop. And while my career took me to the planemaker on the other side of the Atlantic, I feel a deep fondness for the American icon that is the Boeing Company—and sadness at its current malaise. I am confident that it can regain its magic by putting airplane geeks at the helm, giving its employees a direct stake in the company’s success, and making a bold, ambitious bet on the future." My thoughts on what's gone awry at Boeing and how to fix it: https://lnkd.in/gNpgXd3w Archived version: https://archive.is/qgK5n

Did you know that a 50-seat hydrogen powered aircraft uses 40% less energy compared to a turboprop using SAF, and 65% less than a regional jet-turbofan on a standard regional mission of 200 NM because fuel cell electric powertrains are significantly more efficient than gas turbines ?  And when you consider SAF-Power to Liquid fuel production, the benefits become even more pronounced. Liquid Hydrogen requires significantly less green energy to produce than SAF PtL. This justifies the challenges of integrating hydrogen technologies into aircraft. Energy shapes the future of humanity, let's make the right choices on how we use it ! Motion design by DIGEEK #hydrogen #innovationintheskies #greenaviation #hydrogenpower #greentechnology