Universal Hydrogen takes off with the largest hydrogen fuel cell ever flown

When a Universal Hydrogen aircraft, equipped with the largest hydrogen fuel cell ever produced for an aircraft, made its first test flight over eastern Washington, co-founder and CEO Paul Eremenko explained the moment that marked a “new era of aviation gold” . . . .”

The 15-minute test flight of a modified Dash-8 aircraft was brief, but it showed that hydrogen could be viable as a fuel for short-haul aircraft. That is, if Universal Hydrogen and other companies in the growing world of hydrogen flight can make the necessary technical and regulatory advancements to make it a mainstream product.

Dash-8s are a staple at regional airports, typically carrying up to 50 passengers on short-haul routes. The Dash-8 used on Thursday’s test flight from Grant County International Airport at Moses Lake had a significantly different payload. Universal Hydrogen’s test plane, called the Lightning McClean, had just two pilots, an engineer and a lot of technology on board, including an electric motor and a hydrogen fuel cell supplied by two other startups.

The dismantled interior contained two electronics and sensor racks and two large hydrogen tanks containing 30 kg of fuel. Under the aircraft’s right wing, a magniX electric motor was powered by Plug Power’s new hydrogen fuel cell. This system converts hydrogen into electricity and water, a zero-emission power plant that Eremenko says represents the future of aviation.

The fuel cell ran for the entire flight, producing up to 800 kW of power and generating nothing but steam and smiles on the faces of a crowd of Universal Hydrogen engineers and investors.

“We think it’s a monumental achievement,” Eremenko said. “The fact that we probably have the first hydrogen-certified aircraft in passenger service keeps us on track.”

Aviation currently contributes about 2.5% to global CO2 emissions and is expected to grow at a rate of 4% per year.

Still uses jet fuel

A successful test flight does not mean that a completely CO2-free aviation is imminent.

Under the other wing of the Dash-8 was a standard Pratt and Whitney turboprop engine (note the difference in the photo above) with about twice the power on the fuel cell side. That redundancy helped pave the way for the FAA to issue a special certificate of experimental airworthiness for Dash-8 testing in early February.

One of the test pilots, Michael Bockler, told TechCrunch that the plane “flew like a regular Dash-8, with just a slight yaw.” He noticed that at one point the plane was flying almost exclusively on fuel cell power in level flight, with the turboprop engine running.

“Until both engines run on hydrogen, it will be a spectacle,” says a senior engineer who advises the sustainable aviation industry. “But I don’t want to joke, because we need those steps to learn.”

Part of the problem with today’s fuel cells is that they are difficult to cool. Jet engines get much hotter, but they dissipate most of that heat through their exhaust gases. Because fuel cells use an electrochemical reaction rather than simply burning hydrogen, waste heat must be removed through a system of heat exchangers and vents.

ZeroAvia, another startup developing hydrogen fuel cells for aviation, shot down its first flying prototype in 2021 after shutting down its fuel cell in mid-air to cool it down and failing to restart it. Since then, ZeroAvia has resumed flying in a hybrid hydrogen-fossil fuel configuration similar to Universal Hydrogen, albeit in a smaller twin-engine aircraft.

Universal Hydrogen CTO Mark Cousin told TechCrunch that the large air ducts allow the fuel cell to run all day without overheating.

Another problem for fuel cell aircraft is the storage of the hydrogen needed to fly. Even in its densest, supercooled liquid form, hydrogen contains only about a quarter of the energy of a comparable volume of jet fuel. The wing tanks are not large enough for the shortest flights, so fuel must be stored in the fuselage. Today’s 15-minute flight used about 16 kilograms of hydrogen gas, half the amount stored in two motorcycle-sized tanks in the passenger compartment. Universal Hydrogen plans to convert its test aircraft to run on liquid hydrogen later this year.

create modules

Eremenko co-founded Universal Hydrogen in 2020, and the company raised $20.5 million in a 2021 Series A funding round led by Playground Global. Funding to date is approaching $100 million, including investments from Airbus, General Electric, American Airlines, JetBlue and Toyota. The company is headquartered near SpaceX in Hawthorne, California and maintains a technical facility in Toulouse, France.

Universal Hydrogen will now conduct further testing at Moses Lake. The company will work to develop additional software and eventually convert the aircraft to run on liquid hydrogen. The aircraft is expected to be decommissioned early next year and the fuel cell will be shipped to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Universal Hydrogen expects to start shipping fuel cell conversion kits for regional jets like the Dash-8 as early as 2025. The company has nearly 250 modernization orders worth more than $1 billion from 16 customers, including Air New Zealand. John Thomas, CEO of Connect Airlines, which plans to be the first US airline to adopt Universal Hydrogen’s technology, said, “The partnership provides the fastest path to zero-emission operations for the global aviation industry.”

Universal Hydrogen not only produces the razors, but also sells the blades.

Almost all of the hydrogen used today is produced at the point of consumption. This is not only because hydrogen leaks easily and can damage traditional steel containers, but more importantly because in its most useful form, a compact liquid, it must be kept at only 20 degrees above absolute zero, which usually requires refrigeration.

The liquid hydrogen used in the Moses Lake test came from a commercial “green hydrogen gas” supplier, meaning it was produced using renewable energy. Only a small portion of the hydrogen produced today is made this way.

If the economy of hydrogen really weighs in on the climate crisis, green hydrogen should be much easier and cheaper to produce, store and transport.

Eremenko originally founded Universal Hydrogen to develop standardized hydrogen modules that can be transported on standard tractor trailers and easily installed in aircraft or other vehicles for immediate use. The current design can hold liquid hydrogen for up to 100 hours and is often compared to the convenience of Nespresso machines. Universal Hydrogen says it has more than $2 billion in fuel service orders for the next decade.

Prototype modules were demonstrated in December, and the company expects to begin building a 60,000-square-foot facility for them in Albuquerque, New Mexico, later this year. This nearly $400 million project depends on the success of a previously undisclosed loan application from the U.S. Department of Energy for more than $200 million. Eremenko says the application has passed the first phase of due diligence within the DOE.

a long trail

Some experts doubt that hydrogen will ever have a significant impact on aviation emissions. Bernard van Dijk, an aerospace scientist with the Coalition for Hydrogen Sciences, appreciates the simplicity of Universal Hydrogen’s modules, but notes that even NASA has trouble controlling hydrogen leaks with its rockets. “They still have to connect the boats to the plane. How will everything be safe? Because if it leaks and someone lights a match, it’s a recipe for disaster,” he says. “I think they also underestimate the whole certification process for a new hydrogen-powered powertrain.”

Even after these hurdles are overcome, the problem of producing enough green hydrogen from renewable electricity at a price people are willing to gamble on remains. “If you want to run all European flights on hydrogen, you need 89,000 large wind turbines to produce enough hydrogen,” says van Dijk. “They would cover an area twice the size of the Netherlands.”

But Eremenko remains convinced that Universal Hydrogen and its partners can make it work with the help of a $3 per kilogram green hydrogen subsidy under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. “Of all the things that keep me awake at night,” he says, “the cost and availability of green hydrogen is not one of them.”