The focus is on a holistic assessment of hydrogen in aviation. For this reason, the most important aspects of this are being addressed in H2Avia.
Only by including the climate impact of the production of H2 can a meaningful assessment of the potential of an H2-powered aviation industry be made. For this reason, Bauhaus Luftfahrt (BHL) will investigate the possible production processes and transport routes to the airport in terms of their economic and ecological aspects.
While the use of H2 as a primary energy source does not necessarily require a radical change in aircraft configuration, it does require several significant adjustments to components. These changes, and where appropriate technologies with high synergistic potential, will be investigated at a conceptual level and specifically for different aircraft sizes. Here, BHL focuses on H2-burning propulsion systems, the fuselage and wing. Analytical methods are used which are as simple as possible and which are able to represent the unconventional aspects while still covering large parameter spaces and generating complete data sets.
After integrating fuel and aircraft life cycle analysis, a demand scenario based on fleet modeling is used to determine the effect of H2 aircraft introduction. In this way, the potential of a fleet of hydrogen-powered aircraft for climate impact can ultimately be specified and appropriate technological and policy measures can be derived.
Besides the role as project coordinator Bauhaus Luftfahrt performs techno-economic, environmental, and socio-economic analyses in collaboration with consortium partners.
To visualise the design space of the aircraft sizes and tank configurations that will be analysed in H2Avia, this group of initial H2 concept aircraft was devised. They are not yet the outcome of an integrated design but are based on proportional scaling.
The underlying project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs
and Climate Protection under the funding code 20E2106A gefördert.