JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #130 - September/October 2019 - 41

FEATURE
aerospace

Liquid hydrogen aircraft project takes off
AeroDelft, a team of students from TU Delft, is in the process of developing the very first manned aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen. Last
April, the team unveiled the design of a prototype that produces only
water vapour and no harmful emissions.

ver the last 120 years, the world of aviation developed from a few daredevils
who dreamt of flying into an industry
that enables almost 38.1 million flights to
reach their final destination every year. This
growth, however, also created an industry
that accounts for 2% of all CO2 emissions,
caused mainly by the gases emitted as a result
of fuel consumption. The use of hydrogen to
fuel aircraft is still in its very early days and
the TU Delft team hopes to contribute to
its development by demonstrating that it is
possible to fly unmanned aircraft fuelled by
hydrogen.
Liquid hydrogen
The team is hard at work designing the propulsion system that will convert hydrogen to
power the Phoenix, as the AeroDelft aircraft
is known. Hydrogen is a logical choice: it is
the lightest element known and contains
three times as much energy as petrol. Using
hydrogen to drive vehicles is clearly possible.

JEC Composites Magazine: : Can hydrogen
fuel eventually become established in the
aeronautical sector?

Liam Megill: It is clear that with dras-

Explosion risks
However, the use of hydrogen does not have
only advantages. The fact that it is so rich in
energy means it can also be explosive. To
meet the strict safety requirements associated with aviation and guarantee the safety of
the people in the aircraft, the team intends
to build in the possibility of discharging the

hydrogen from the aircraft to prevent the
danger of explosion in emergency situations.
Because the hydrogen charges a battery during flight, it will still be possible to land the
aircraft safely after discharging the fuel.
The second major challenge involves making
the production of hydrogen sustainable.
Making liquid hydrogen currently requires
too much energy to enable large-scale production. This is why AeroDelft hopes to use
the presentation of the aircraft to emphasise
hydrogen's potential as a fuel. The aviation
industry needs to make aviation more sustainable as soon as possible.
By showing the world that it is possible to fly
on liquid hydrogen, the team hopes to inspire
the rest of the world to invest more in the
potential of liquid hydrogen and improve its
production efficiency.
Side view of the
scaled hydrogen
aircraft.

tically increasing global temperatures, the
aviation industry must do its part in curbing
greenhouse gas emissions. In order to do so,
the industry cannot continue using conventional fossil fuels and must switch to a sustainable, long-term solution.
Various alternatives to conventional kerosene have been theorised, loosely divided
into three categories: kerosene equivalents
such as biofuels and synthetic fuels, batteries
and hydrogen.
While biofuels and synthetic fuels can, and
will, play a role in the transition from fossil

fuels to green flying, they are not a long-term
solution. Biofuels are unrealistic because of
the required crop growing area, which for
aviation alone would account for a quarter
of the area of the European Union. Synthetic
fuels require a large investment in infrastructure and a large amount of energy to produce.
Battery technology has improved greatly
in the last few decades. While batteries can
reasonably be used to power smaller aircraft
with shorter ranges, current trends make
their use in larger aircraft with longer ranges
unfeasible. Moreover, current battery mate-

N°130 September - October 2019

/ jec composites magazine

Feature Energy

Liam Megill,
Team manager
AeroDelft

The hydrogen is carried in the aircraft in liquid form because it takes up much less space
than the gas form and enables more compact
storage. However, this is quite a challenge
since hydrogen must be kept at -253 degrees
Celsius to remain in liquid form. This means
that the storage tank will need to have an
insulating wall at least 20 cm thick. The
hydrogen is then mixed with oxygen in the
cell, releasing energy and producing water
vapour.

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #130 - September/October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #130 - September/October 2019