ZeroAvia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with hydrogen fuelling firm, ZEV Station to develop green hydrogen refuelling infrastructure for airports in California.
The two companies will work alongside each other to develop an initial regional airport project that represents sufficient scale to showcase how hydrogen-electric propulsion systems can deliver zero-emission commercial flights. Using ZeroAvia’s research and development in hydrogen production and refuelling for aviation as well as ZEV Station’s experience in the provision of gaseous hydrogen for road vehicles, the two will develop an innovative hydrogen airport refuelling system.
As part of the partnership, ZeroAvia plans flight demonstrations of hydrogen-electric aircraft from pilot airports, supported by the co-developed refuelling ecosystem and dedicated support from ZEV Station.
Commenting on the agreement, 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.”
ZeroAvia has already developed a fully functioning microcosm of potential refueling operations. The Hydrogen Airport Refueling Infrastructure (HARE), developed as part of the HyFlyer projects in conjunction with the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC), has demonstrated green hydrogen production through to airside fueling. Airports are central points of significant demand, thanks to the high volumes of hydrogen required to power aircraft. Busy hubs can produce economies of scale for hydrogen production and thus make it more economical to remove greenhouse gas emissions in other areas such as ground operations, onward transportation links, and proximate industry.
Stating that there is no time like the present to develop a path towards replacing fossil fuels, Jessie Schneider CEO/ CTO ZEV Station, added: “We jointly plan to collaborate to help accelerate fueling methodologies with public-private-partnerships such as the newly formed H2-Aero Team at the Vertical Flight Society. As a future step, there is great potential to take these learnings towards the creation of Zero Emission Airports with a large central hydrogen production at scale, an H2-Hub. This H2-Hub, with zero carbon energy, would generate a significant amount of green hydrogen on-site for both aircraft and vehicles. This could offset the need for carbon-based fuel at airports entirely, but there is a lot to be done to make this a common reality. ZEV Station sees the partnership with ZeroAvia as a key catalyst to help kickstart hydrogen fueling for aviation in California and beyond.”
