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Airbus to Experiment With Hydrogen Powered APU
Airbus and its subsidiary Airbus UpNext, have announced at the Paris Airshow the beginning of a new program aimed at reducing ground emissions. The project will focus on research around a hydrogen powered (zero emission) APU on a "technological demonstrator" A330-200 aircraft. Should the project be successful, Airbus will attempt to implement some of the technology into both future and current aircraft designs. (aeroxplorer.com) Más...
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Um, they do! And have been for as long as I can remember. And not just at larger airports, pretty much every airport with commercial service has electric and air conditioning from systems attached to the jetway. The few places that don’t have jetways have at least a ground power unit for electricity, some places don’t have ground air though.
I wasn't aware of that. Thanks!
"How feasible would it be for airports to provide some kind of ground-based power source that aircraft could plug into while on the ground, kind of like how ships will use "shore power?"
They do this everywhere. It's called a GPU (Ground Power Unit) and it supplies electrical power to the plane while at the gate. APU is generally running on shorter turns though.
A hydrogen powered APU is really stupid if the whole plane isn't hydrogen powered. Dangerous fuel to keep on board + would not be available at many airports.
They do this everywhere. It's called a GPU (Ground Power Unit) and it supplies electrical power to the plane while at the gate. APU is generally running on shorter turns though.
A hydrogen powered APU is really stupid if the whole plane isn't hydrogen powered. Dangerous fuel to keep on board + would not be available at many airports.
Oh the humanity!
JetA1 and gasoline are far more dangerous than hydrogen.
Uuhhh, wrong, especially on jeta as it is the most stable of the three, vapor pressure wise. Avgas ie second on the list and H, atomic #1 is already a gas. One spark and it's boom.
Uncontained liquid hydrogen evaporated to gas and dissipates rapidly, liquid hydrocarbon fuels don't. The volumetric energy density of hydrogen is also much less than hydrocarbons. Liquid hydrogen has a density of 8 MJ/L whereas gasoline has a density of 32 MJ/L.
Source: https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-storage
Source: https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-storage
"evaporated to gas" should be "evaporates to gas". Apologies for the typo.
Obviously this would only be practical at larger airports, and aircraft would still need APUs, but it seems like the kind of thing airlines would be willing to adapt if it would save them money.