Telegraph- Hydrogen planes were meant to deliver net zero. Those plans are being torn up
Hydrogen planes “have almost vanished from the road map”, says Carlos López de la Osa, of Transport & Environment (T&E), which promotes sustainable flying. As a result, the only realistic fuel alternative to fossil fuels for full-size passenger jets appears to have been swept off the board.
The ran into the laws of thermodynamics, and that hydrogen is very difficult to store.
Put your money on Mini Fusion Reactors (MFR). Lockheed Martin is already well into the development stage, and predict it will be test flighted in less than 10 years. From there, like most military items, it will drip into domestic life, and will be tailored to commercial aircraft.
They can’t even make a full-sized fusion reactor that works.
Even ITER isn’t scheduled for ignition for 10 years.
Also, that project (MFR) was cancelled in 2021.
https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/skunk-works-halted-nuclear-fusion-effort-2021
Its still 30+ years away, just like it has been since it started.
Agreed. Not only is Iter an expensive disaster, but the Livermore laser array, called Shiva, has been equally a complete waste of money and resources. The only time the array was ever turned on caused a local electricity blachout.
Fusion is completely unnecessary because the world already has safe, plentiful fission when and where it is needed for power generation.
I’m ok with non-aviation fueled planes.
I just want to choose who is going to be on the first trans-Atlantic test. In February.
I’ll go but only if they give me a parade when I get to Paris.
Hydrogen as a fuel for cars and planes is one of the dumbest ideas ever.
It makes metal brittle, needs very heavy super-high pressure tanks or cryogenic cooling to get any range at all.
I’m sure the research money went to very deserving folk, though.
It had a possibility of being viable.
There is not a whole lot of other possibilities.
Fuel based on hydro-carbons.
Battery, too heavy.
Fusion, 30 years away since the 80’s
Some other technology straight out of science fiction, (Unobtainium)
some other technology that is nutty but not perhaps nutty enough to not be considered, I would put say Hydrogen,solar panels, steam power and anything wind up in that category.(hopium)
I liked your names John Robertson.
Yeah, Well
When I left Vancouver 40 years ago, Ballard Fuel Systems was on the leading edge of the hydrogen fuel cell revolution for cars and trucks. How has that gone?
And even funnier is that new supersonic passenger planes are being developed, which burn tons more fuel.
Boom Supersonic is the name of the company.
Scott Manley has done a couple of videos about them.
Hindenburg Ambitions.
That was always an obviously unfeasible concept, but the woke who aspire to go broke have to waste billions somewhere.
The entire hydrogen-based energy infrastructure scheme is destined to come down around the ears of its fanboys.
The whole thing was a scam from the word go.
It takes energy to get hydrogen. You can get it from water by elecrolysis, which is very energy intensive.
Most commercial hydrogen is made from methane in a process that releases CO2.
Hydrogen is one of the best possible fuels. If it did not blow the neighbourhood into smithereens with one well placed spark.
To this day can’t understand how they brushes, on power generators with hydrogen, it says right there that there is hydrogen cooling system. Anyway it obviously does not blow into pieces.
Ballar of Vancouver been working, at one time with Merceds, on running the car with hydrogen, the problem seems to be the storage and delivery systems. Though I remember as a kid, very late 40’s and early 50’s of the past century that there was one car in town with two cylinders at the back that actually used hydrogen as a fuel.
This is in a communist run country. As far as I know it just got retired and never blew up.
It is though expansive to produce hydrogen, needs a lot of electric power. It would be a good use of the wind mills, heh.
Would like to say though, that it is the fuel of future.
Its useless for cars and trucks, due to the need for extremely high pressures or cryogenic cooling, and hydrogen embrittlement of the tanks.
Hydrogen is much safer than people think; the Hindenburg disaster wasn’t caused by the hydrogen but rather the inflammable skin on the envelope.
Hydrogen-filled airships can fly well above weather systems at consistent speeds. They’d be a great option for bulk cargo to the Arctic but there are technical challenges to landing that haven’t really been solved yet.
Pah, Hydrogen?
Every good environmentalist knows that the energy of the future will come from Hopium and Unobtainium.
Gang Green knows better than you,what choices you will must make,that is why they believe they will make these choices for us.
Spring in Hudson Bay has so many empty ice floes blowing out to sea.
We must stop wasting such God Given Gifts.
Every ice floe needs a Greenie
“Every ice floe needs a Greenie”
Can we find a way to keep them there until it melts? Then they might be doing something useful for all of us serving as fish-food.
Low energy in a hydrogen hydrogen bond compared to methane with 4 carbon hydrogen bonds. Or better yet kerosene or diesel