Mission Statement
To Enable the Safer Use of Hydrogen as a Lifting Gas in Airships
Our Goal
Lifting Gas has a thin flame arrester innovation (patent pending) which could provide combustion resistance to hydrogen-filled airships. EASA is contemplating allowing hydrogen as a lifting gas on a case-by-case basis. This innovation (currently at TRL2) could assist airship OEMs considering hydrogen.
For flights loaded one way to remote areas, 1 tonne of hydrogen lifting gas could be offloaded for every 13 tonnes of cargo offloaded (instead of ballast exchange), the hydrogen gas (at 1 bar) being flown without the heavy containers needed to transport compressed or liquefied hydrogen.
The offloaded hydrogen could be used in a (ground-based) hydrogen engine combined heat and power (CHP) unit. For example, 1 tonne of delivered hydrogen (which has a higher energy value of 38,900 kWh) could be used to generate 115 kW of electrical output and 129 kW of heat output for 5.3 days (127.5 hours) based on an 80% efficient CHP unit.
In addition, up to 9 tonnes of water (not potable, but suitable for personal hygiene, washing clothes, growing food, etc.) could be recovered from the exhaust of the CHP unit for each 1 tonne of hydrogen used, the other 8 tonnes from oxygen in the air.
Higher payload airships have a linear benefit. For 130 tonnes of cargo offloaded, 10 tonnes of hydrogen could be offloaded resulting in the same CHP unit running constantly for 53 days with up to 90 tonnes of water recovered.
While further developments to enable such applications are needed, the potential benefits are there, especially for relief flights.
Our initial goal is to conduct a one to two year research programme to take the flame arrester innovation to TRL3.