Decarbonising aviation will cost more before it costs less. That was the frame for a conference news item on airline thinking about hydrogen. Aircraft need high energy density, long range and absolute confidence in safety, and those requirements make the transition slower than in road transport or stationary power.
The item noted the scale of the challenge: global flights produced hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2019, while carrying billions of passengers. Airlines are under pressure from governments, investors and travellers to reduce emissions, and hydrogen is one of several routes under examination alongside sustainable fuels and efficiency gains.
For the hydrogen community, the aviation question is useful because it forces a whole system view. Production, airport infrastructure, storage, certification and aircraft design all have to move together. The conference programme included transport and aerospace among its topics for that reason.
This item is part of the 2022 conference news archive. It is a short record of a development reported during the conference period, not a technical paper.