Challenges and benefits offered by liquid hydrogen fuels in commercial aviation

This paper aims to highlight the opportunities and challenges associated with the adoption of hydrogen fuels in aviation. An overview of the environmental and economic benefits and technological challenges is performed, including considerations in aircraft and airport design, operations and safety. A simplified model is subsequently introduced to quantify the benefits associated with the adoption of liquid hydrogen fuel in aviation. The model is used to evaluate the benefits of liquid hydrogen in aircraft of conventional configurations and encompasses the changes in volume, weights and environmental impacts. This paper concludes that hydrogen in cryogenic liquid form demonstrates great potential to become a highly sustainable commercial aviation fuel and to improve the safety of commercial air travel. However, with the implementation of this technology come many difficulties, which seemingly stretch beyond the current aviation capabilities. These include the identification of a sustainable production, storage and delivery systems that shall not dilute the nominal environmental benefits, and public and industry support to ensure financial feasibility.