Results of the H2Avia project: potential of hydrogen for global aviation
Citation Link: https://doi.org/10.15480/882.17368
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2026-06-12
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Moser, Leonard
Welsch, Tobias
Heinze, Wolfgang
TORE-DOI
Journal
Volume
13
Issue
6
Article Number
550
Citation
Aerospace 13 (6): 550 (2026)
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
This paper presents an integrated assessment of liquid hydrogen as an aviation energy carrier, covering fuel production, aircraft performance, and fleet-level climate impacts. The results, based on the H2Avia research project, indicate substantial potential for reducing life-cycle global warming impacts compared to conventional kerosene. The analyses conducted for the interdisciplinary assessment are presented. The analysis shows that the use of liquid hydrogen eliminates CO<sub>2</sub> emissions during fuel burn, resulting in a significant reduction in global warming potential compared to conventional kerosene, despite remaining upstream emissions from production and transport. The aircraft application cases and the applied technologies assessment scenario are described. The modeled technologies essential for the hydrogen aircraft are discussed, and exemplary values are given. Integrated overall aircraft performance results are given and discussed. At the aircraft level, hydrogen-based aircraft require an 8–18% increase in design mission block energy compared to a 2040 kerosene baseline yet still achieve a reduction in effective global warming potential of 55–86% comparing a representative pair route between Europe and North America (6730 km). An overview of the fleet modeling approach and the applied scenarios is given. For a scenario with energy cost and climate impact as equally weighted minimization goals, the global fleet analysis yields a global warming potential reduction of 60% compared to the non-liquid hydrogen baseline scenario. Overall, the results suggest that liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft can deliver significant mission- and fleet-level reductions in global warming potential and thus represent a promising pathway for achieving long-term aviation climate targets.
Subjects
hydrogen aviation
aviation climate impact
hydrogen aircraft design
life-cycle assessment
fleet modeling
future scenarios
DDC Class
629.1: Aviation
Publication version
publishedVersion