Universal Hydrogen, a hydrogen fuel services provider that uses modular hydrogen capsule technology, has announced completion of an operational demonstration of loading and unloading its proprietary modular hydrogen capsules on its ATR-72 test aircraft.
“The demonstration on the ATR-72 showed the loading and unloading of Universal Hydrogen’s modular hydrogen capsules into the aircraft, simulating a turnaround procedure, and took place on the operational F50 apron of Toulouse Blagnac Airport” according to the press release. “A strong collaboration between the Toulouse Blagnac Airport, its safety and security partners, as well as the ground handling company, Groupe 3S, in charge of the ground operations, enabled the demonstration to be executed smoothly and successfully.
“Simultaneously, the company also showcased the fuelling logistics solution for its new H2AmpCartTM, which is being designed and developed in partnership with JBT AeroTech, and will serve as a hydrogen fuel cell-powered, mobile battery charger for electric ground support equipment (GSE).
“This groundbreaking solution eliminates the need for expensive airport infrastructure investments. Displayed today, the hydrogen modules for the H2AmpCart have a discrete form-factor to those utilised in the aircraft and are being built and tested to support the year-end availability of the fully-functional demonstrator H2AmpCart. By bringing the hydrogen and charger directly to the eGSEs on the airport aprons, the costly process of driving long distances to a central charging station is removed. Universal Hydrogen’s H2AmpCart hydrogen modules are filled away from the airport with green hydrogen, and transferred to the airport landside leveraging existing intermodal freight infrastructure. From there, the modules are loaded onto a trailer for safe and efficient transportation to any location airside of the airport, facilitating opportunistic charging of eGSEs between operations. The trailer is then connected to the H2AmpCart with Universal Hydrogen’s purge-less quick connect system. This approach optimises GSE operations and minimizes downtime.”
“Many airports around the world utilise hydrogen on a daily basis already, but in most cases those are for landside operations such as shuttle buses. Today we took a step closer to hydrogen becoming a reality in the day to day operations at airports worldwide as we completed a hydrogen fuelling turnaround of our ATR-72 aircraft and presented the fuelling logistics of our new H2AmpCart. These airside capabilities underscore the impact our modular hydrogen capsule technology is having on our industry,” said Arnaud Namer, COO, Universal Hydrogen. “With no additional on-airport infrastructure required to make modular hydrogen refuelling a reality, we are confident in our benefit to the immediate and cost-effective transition to true zero emissions.”
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(Image: Universal Hydrogen)