An innovative aviation hydrogen handling and refuelling project, led by Airbus and supported by academic partners, airport operators and hydrogen-industry companies, has been launched to demonstrate small-scale liquid hydrogen aircraft ground operations at three European airports.
The GOLIAT (Ground Operations of LIquid hydrogen AircrafT) project* will receive funding of EUR10.8 million from the EU’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme, over a duration of four years, and will demonstrate how high-flow liquid hydrogen (LH2) handling and refuelling technologies can be developed and used safely and reliably for airport operations.
According to a programme office press release:
“The GOLIAT consortium consists of 10 partners from eight countries: Airbus (France, Germany, UK), Chart Industries (Czech Republic, Italy), TU Delft (Netherlands), Leibniz University Hannover (Germany), Royal Schiphol Group (Netherlands), Rotterdam The Hague Airport (Netherlands), Vinci Airports (France, Portugal), Stuttgart Airport (Germany), H2FLY (Germany), and Budapest Airport (Hungary).
The group will support the aviation industry’s adoption of LH2 transportation and energy storage solutions by developing and demonstrating LH2 refuelling technologies scaled-up for future large commercial aircraft; demonstrating small-scale LH2 aircraft ground operations at airports; developing the standardisation and certification framework for future LH2 operations; assessing the sizing and economics of the hydrogen value chains for airports.
LH2’s high energy density enables long-range travel for aircraft, yet there are many steps to the widespread deployment of hydrogen at airports, including the need to better understand the operational, regulatory, economic and safety impacts, as well as the capacity and performance of technologies, says the programme website.
Karine Guenan, Vice President of ZEROe Ecosystem, Airbus:“We continue to believe that hydrogen will be an important fuel for the future of short-haul aviation. We welcome the opportunity to help build the operating case for the widespread daily use of liquid hydrogen at airports.”
Josef Kallo, co-founder and CEO, H2FLY: “Leveraging our experience in the HEAVEN project, where we completed the world’s first piloted flight of a liquid hydrogen-powered electric aircraft, we look forward to contributing our expertise in LH2 operations to GOLIAT. We believe in the potential of hydrogen to transform aviation and are committed to supporting its adoption for a sustainable future. GOLIAT marks another important step in our journey toward decarbonizing the aviation industry, and we are excited to be part of this important initiative.“
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