Sustainable Aviation—Hydrogen Is the Future

Abstract

As the global search for new methods to combat global warming and climate change continues, renewable fuels and hydrogen have emerged as saviours for environmentally polluting industries such as aviation. Sustainable aviation is the goal of the aviation industry today. There is increasing interest in achieving carbon-neutral flight to combat global warming. Hydrogen has proven to be a suitable alternative fuel. It is abundant, clean, and produces no carbon emissions, but only water after use, which has the potential to cool the environment. This paper traces the historical growth and future of the aviation and aerospace industry. It examines how hydrogen can be used in the air and on the ground to lower the aviation industry’s impact on the environment. In addition, while aircraft are an essential part of the aviation industry, other support services add to the overall impact on the environment. Hydrogen can be used to fuel the energy needs of these services. However, for hydrogen technology to be accepted and implemented, other issues such as government policy, education, and employability must be addressed. Improvement in the performance and emissions of hydrogen as an alternative energy and fuel has grown in the last decade. However, other issues such as the storage and cost and the entire value chain require significant work for hydrogen to be implemented. The international community’s alternative renewable energy and hydrogen roadmaps can provide a long-term blueprint for developing the alternative energy industry. This will inform the private and public sectors so that the industry can adjust its plan accordingly.

Combustion, Chemistry, and Carbon Neutrality

“…Attention is not only given to the fuel, but also to the aircraft, its components and materials, to flight paths, and to control strategies. , Advances are suggested in different fields including turbine design and performance; fuel tank design for alternative fuel options such as hydrogen; as well as ground operations and energy services at airports, potentially supported by hydrogen usage …”

Technology and solution-driven trends in sustainable aviation

“…The issues can be classified into four categories: The technologies of new and alternative fuel production and practical application are in “embryonic”, or early “grows” states (for example, electric propulsion requires such a level of a specific energy that might be available 15–20 years later only (IATA, 2019). There are several options for developing and using new fuels by propulsion systems, including the traditional fossil kerosene, biofuel, e-kerosene, liquid (green) hydrogen, electric hybrid aircraft, fuel cell (hydrogen + electric motors), and electric energy (de Jong et al , 2017; Doliente et al , 2020; Shahabuddin et al , 2020; Bauen et al , 2020; Zhou et al , 2022; Yusaf et al , 2022; Hoelzen et al , 2018; Baroutaji et al , 2019; Wheeler, 2016; Schäfer et al , 2019), etc. Their possible effects on CO 2 emission LCC are shown in Figure 3. Aviation emits except CO 2, so-called non-CO 2 emissions, too, containing oxides of nitrogen (NO x ), soot particles, oxidized sulfur species and water vapor (Lee et al , 2021).…”

“…There are several options for developing and using new fuels by propulsion systems, including the traditional fossil kerosene, biofuel, e-kerosene, liquid (green) hydrogen, electric hybrid aircraft, fuel cell (hydrogen + electric motors), and electric energy (de Jong et al , 2017; Doliente et al , 2020; Shahabuddin et al , 2020; Bauen et al , 2020; Zhou et al , 2022; Yusaf et al , 2022; Hoelzen et al , 2018; Baroutaji et al , 2019; Wheeler, 2016; Schäfer et al , 2019), etc. Their possible effects on CO 2 emission LCC are shown in Figure 3.…”

Effects of Wall Thickness Variation on Hydrogen Embrittlement Susceptibility of Additively Manufactured 316L Stainless Steel with Lattice Auxetic Structures

“…Shifting to a carbon-neutral economy in mitigating climate change increases worldwide interest in clean energy sources. Hydrogen (H) is considered an optimum green alternative to traditional fossil fuel sources in terms of reducing carbon footprint to enhance environmental sustainability [ 1 , 2 ]. H can be produced by decoupling H atoms from their carriers, such as water [ 3 , 4 ].…”