With hydrogen fuellings becoming increasingly integral to conversations around decarbonising aviation, ZeroAvia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with energy company, Fortum, to explore hydrogen production and refuelling infrastructure at airports across the Nordics.
As part of the agreement, the two companies will investigate the potential development of on-the-ground hydrogen infrastructure at airports with the aim of removing emissions from both flights and the wider airport ecosystem. On-airport hydrogen infrastructure can also support complementary traffic from heavy-duty transportation, materials handling equipment and other energy consuming systems.
“As hydrogen hubs, airports can help[ reduce climate and air quality impacts of flight and a raft of other operations,” said Arnab Chatterjee, VP Infrastructure at ZeroAvia. “Scaling the renewable energy capacity and reducing costs pose clear, but fully surmountable challenges to hydrogen as the fuel to power truly clean flights. Fortum is well positioned as a partner in this space, given the company’s clean energy focus and its emerging hydrogen leadership.”
Nordic countries are expected to be among the early adopters of zero-emission flights thanks to supportive governments offering encouraging policies and targets to help decarbonise the sector.
ZeroAvia has already demonstrated its world-first Hydrogen Airport Refuelling Ecosystem (HARE) at its R&D hub in Kemble in the UK. It is also working with a range of airports on projects to establish the infrastructure and operations to operate zero-emission routes as early as 2025.
Torbjörn Wilén, Senior Manager, Hydrogen Business Development, Fortum commented on the collaboration saying: “ZeroAvia is a leader both in demonstrating clean flight, and in building the model for how hydrogen refuelling will work in aviation. We believe that ZeroAvia and Fortum together can explore excellent options for clean aviation, both on the ground and in the air.”
