The European aerospace corporation Airbus plans to establish a joint venture with aircraft engine manufacturer MTU Aero Engines to produce hydrogen-powered engines.

These engines are intended to eventually serve as an alternative to fossil-fuel-powered internal combustion engines, thereby reducing CO2 emissions from aviation.

Fuel cells

Through the joint venture, which is expected to become operational starting next year, Airbus and MTU Aero Engines – Germany’s largest and only independent aircraft engine manufacturer – aim to share their knowledge and experience to become a “leading European player” capable of translating scientific research into engines that can be widely used in the aviation industry.

However, they have not specified a specific year by which their technology is expected to be available for the aviation industry.

The two companies want to build engines that use fuel cells to convert onboard hydrogen into electricity through a chemical reaction. The only emission would then be water vapor.

The advantage over batteries is that fuel cells are much lighter – a crucial factor in aviation – and so you don’t need any huge, heavily insulated tanks at all, unlike with hydrogen gas, which is much less energy-dense than kerosene.

Less risky approach

In 2020, Airbus launched the ambitious ZEROe project, aiming to bring the world’s first commercial hydrogen-powered aircraft to market by 2035. However, that project has faced repeated delays, precisely because the combustion process remains too complex for the time being.

Fuel cells are a less risky approach than direct hydrogen combustion in jet engines, which is similar to kerosene combustion but uses hydrogen as the fuel.

Because they deliver significantly less power per kilogram than internal combustion engines, they are typically used first in smaller aircraft flying short distances, rather than in the large long-haul planes that account for the bulk of aviation emissions.