Aviation360 MEA

The Hamburg Airport in Germany continues to promote initiatives with planes using hydrogen fuel as part of its commitment to sustainable aviation. In order to maintain, repair, and refurbish commercial aircraft that are being converted to VIP and special purpose aircraft, the airport has partnered with Lufthansa Technik.

According to the business, the partnership will prepare the German aviation sector for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). It happens at a time when Hamburg Airport is renowned for using renewable diesel in all of its diesel ground vehicles.

Over the next two years, Lufthansa Technik said it will test several procedures to monitor how hydrogen technology is handled. The company will collaborate with Hamburg Airport, the German Aerospace Center, and the Center for Applied Aeronautical Research to make the testing possible. The money for this program came from the city of Hamburg. According to the corporation, the testing will be carried out in a special facility.

“For this purpose, an aircraft of the Airbus A320 family will be converted into a stationary laboratory at Lufthansa Technik’s base in Hamburg. Within this lab, the partners want to test the effects of Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) on maintenance and ground processes.”

The Hydrogen Aviation Lab, a laboratory with a three-decade-old airplane, will include a full range of testing systems, a tank for liquid hydrogen, and a fuel cell linked with supporting ground-based hydrogen infrastructure.

The lab will aid in educating partners of Lufthansa Technik on how to manage and maintain airplanes that run on hydrogen fuel, which are anticipated to enter service in the middle of the next decade. By improving standard practices and safety measures during maintenance work and testing, it will also encourage the development of future hydrogen-powered aircraft.

According to the business, the facility will also look into ways to reduce the time it would take to refuel airplanes with liquid hydrogen using existing technology. Given that airlines work to reduce aircraft turnaround times as much as they can, the findings will be useful. It is also anticipated that simulations of the Hydrogen Aviation Lab would be created to aid further study.

The corporation claimed that even if the aircraft can no longer fly, it can still be moved on the ground.

“While this Airbus A320 will no longer be taking to the skies, it is capable of being towed to locations at the Lufthansa Technik base and Hamburg Airport to enable real-world research of ground-based processes,” the company explained.

According to Lufthansa Technik, Hamburg’s position will help its business partners take the lead globally in the usage of hydrogen fuel. Hamburg Airport has been promoting sustainability from the bottom up since 2016 by using Neste MY Renewable Diesel, a fuel created from only renewable raw materials, to power its diesel vehicles.