The first test flight of a hydrogen passenger plane ran on fuel produced in large part by fossil fuels, the company behind the plane has admitted.
UK and US-based ZeroAvia last week flew a six-seater plane running on hydrogen instead of kerosene, saying it was the first hydrogen fuel cell flight of a commercial-size aircraft. The company the test as 鈥渢he first step to realising the transformational possibilities of moving from fossil fuels to zero-emission hydrogen鈥�.
UK aviation minister Robert Courts the flight was a sign of the 鈥渃ommitment of government of ensuring we get to net-zero鈥� emissions and a 鈥渉istoric鈥� moment for aviation.
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The hydrogen was produced using an electrolyser, which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. However, ZeroAvia has now told 快猫短视频 that the electricity required to do this was supplied by the UK grid, meaning the ultimate source of energy was, in large part, fossil fuels.
The grid has cleaned up rapidly in recent years, but is still polluting. On average in September, 42 per cent of UK electricity supplies were from gas and coal power stations, meaning every megawatt hour generated released 185 kg of CO2, according to supplied by Iain Stafell at Imperial College London. Typically, 鈥�green hydrogen鈥� is considered to be hydrogen made using an electrolyser powered by 100 per cent renewable sources.
ZeroAvia鈥檚 disclosure has prompted warnings of the risk of greenwashing. Environmentalists have raised concerns in recent months that growing promotion of hydrogen as a clean fuel source has largely ignored the fact it is currently mostly produced using fossil fuels, directly or indirectly.
Tara Connolly at Friends of the Earth Europe says: 鈥淭his news confirms our misgivings that hydrogen is already being used today to greenwash polluting industries and more fossil fuel use. Only hydrogen produced fully from renewable energy can be called zero emissions and this type of hydrogen makes up less than 1 per cent of hydrogen produced in Europe today.鈥�
Julian Renz at ZeroAvia notes that Cranfield University, UK, which owns the airport where the hydrogen was produced, has a solar power installation. However, that exports electricity to local electricity networks rather than sending it direct to an electrolyser, and strictly speaking all the electricity is imported from the grid.
The company says it is working on choosing a 100 per cent renewable energy supplier. 鈥淲herever ZeroAvia can, we aim to use zero-emissions sources to power our electrolyser. However, this is often largely dependent on the sites and locations that we use, and in this case, we are dependent on Cranfield鈥檚 electricity supply,鈥� says a spokesperson.
Andrew Murphy at Belgium-based NGO Transport & Environment says the flight was an important step, but the investment needed to scale up such flights to commercial deployment may be a bigger issue than whether there is enough green hydrogen. 鈥淭he availability of sufficient quantities of green hydrogen is a bridge to be crossed once we鈥檝e addressed the more immediate challenge, which is the design and scalability of the aircraft itself,鈥� he says.
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