When sustainable aviation is the demand of the time, and almost every other Airliner or Country is doing their bit to boost towards the goal, Singapore is not at the Back bench !
Riding on this fever, efforts are being put forward to look into whether hydrogen power infrastructure can be deployed at scale at Changi Airport will begin in the coming months.
On 18 November 2021, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and Airbus signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on sustainable aviation as international air travel recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The MOU was signed between Mr Han Kok Juan, Director-General of CAAS and Ms Sabine Klauke, Chief Technical Officer and Executive Committee Member of Airbus.
While hydrogen power is yet to be used in commercial planes, industry players have touted it as a solution that will lead to zero carbon dioxide emissions. But there are also other issues, such as hydrogen being more expensive to produce compared with natural gas or aviation fuel.
Under the CAAS-Airbus MOU on Sustainable Aviation, CAAS and Airbus will study the demand and production supply of alternative aviation fuels and how these may contribute to decarbonisation strategies, explore opportunities for the research and development of disruptive technologies and enabling airport infrastructure, and look into the economic conditions, regulatory environment and international policies and standards necessary to support sustainable aviation.
The first project CAAS and Airbus will launch under the MOU is a technical feasibility study of an airport hydrogen hub and the infrastructure requirements to support future hydrogen-powered aircraft operations.
Read more on Hydrogen Hub Concepts !
These include the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen, aircraft ground services, logistical equipment, and refuelling systems. The study will examine how these requirements can be planned and provisioned for in airport development, whether upfront or in stages to provide optionality as the technology is developed.
The study will commence in early 2022 and run for two years. The outcome of the study will inform policymaking, infrastructure planning and industry development.
Airbus is working on 'ZEROe concepts' to deliver the world's first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035, under which It is currently studying three concepts for the proposed aircraft .
All three models involve the use of hydrogen to power the aircraft . One of them is an innovative approach that consists of six, eight-bladed “pods” mounted beneath the aircraft wing.
Mr Han Kok Juan, Director-General of CAAS said,
“Decarbonisation is a key priority for international aviation. Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will not be a return to business-as-usual but an opportunity to rebuild an aviation sector that is more sustainable. It is not a question of whether but of how to make flying greener and developing concrete pathways to achieve that goal while ensuring that air travel is still accessible.
Making sustainable aviation viable requires cross-sectoral collaboration to reinvent the entire eco-system and close partnership between the public and private sectors. The CAAS-Airbus collaboration serves as an important pathfinder to better understand the opportunities and challenges and to build new networks of stakeholders for a sustainable aviation sector.”
“Airbus is committed to leading the decarbonisation of the aviation sector and aims to deliver the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035,” said Ms Sabine Klauke, Chief Technical Officer, Airbus. “The decarbonisation of our industry requires a combination of approaches, hydrogen being one of them, and will need unprecedented cross-sector collaboration to create the new aviation infrastructure ecosystem. We are therefore pleased to have CAAS as a partner, as we embark on this exciting journey.”
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