Photo: Bristol Airport
Ultima Forma has partnered with Bristol Airport in the UK to work on a groundbreaking liquid hydrogen refuelling project to support emerging zero-carbon emissions aircraft.
The innovative project, funded through Bristol Airport’s Aviation Carbon Transition (ACT) programme, underlines a major step towards decarbonising regional aviation.
“Our region is at the forefront of global efforts to develop zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered flight,” said Hannah Pollard, Head of Sustainability at Bristol Airport.
Noting that the first regional hydrogen flights are expected in the coming years, she added: “Bristol Airport wants to be an early adopter of this exciting new technology.”
Pollard also acknowledged that Ultima Forma’s study is a huge step towards Bristol hosting the storage and refuelling facilities required to support hydrogen-powered flight.
The airport’s project delivers a first-of-its-kind technical report showing how a liquid hydrogen (LH2) refuelling system tailored for Bristol Airport’s operations could be built and operated. LH2 aircraft are already being developed in the region by ZeroAvia and Airbus, with a major challenge to their commercial operations being the current lack of hydrogen fuel storage and refuelling facilities at airports.
“Developing engineering solutions for the carbon transition is at the heart of Ultima Forma’s technology,” said Andy Bushby, CTO at Ultima Forma. “Working with Bristol Airport has been exciting in exploring how decarbonised aviation could be brought to life.”
Ultima Forma’s report examines deliveries of liquid hydrogen to the airport and its storage. Liquid hydrogen needs to be stored at -253 degrees Celsius. While the technology to do this is available, it has yet to be used at scale at an airport.
