Baltic Sea Region (BSR) HyAirport project: International project for hydrogen in aviation gets underway

The "BSR HyAirport" project has officially started. 16 airports, airlines, research organisations and technology companies from Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Poland and Germany are working together with 24 associated partners on the future of aviation. The aim of the project's work packages is to create the conditions for hydrogen-powered flights over the next three years and to enable the first demonstration flights in the Baltic Sea region before the end of this decade.

The EU is funding "BSR HyAirport" in the Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme with a total of around 3.8 million euros, which will be distributed among the various partners. The project aims to establish applications for hydrogen technology in aviation. Gaseous, green hydrogen is particularly suitable as a fuel in air transport, initially for flights over shorter distances and therefore for flight connections in the Baltic Sea region. Regular air traffic with regional aircraft with up to approx. 80 seats is expected as early as this decade.

Partners prepare for first demonstration flights: The project partners want to develop, test and evaluate practical solutions to make it easier for airports and airlines to use this key technology. At the same time, they will prepare for challenges such as the storage, handling and supply of green hydrogen. one of the aims is to enable demonstration flights between the partner airports together with the airlines during the project period. To this end, the project partners involved must be prepared for the special features of handling hydrogen-powered aircraft, among other things.

In addition, the project partnership will deal with the legal framework, the entire supply chain, including local production if necessary, transport of hydrogen to the airport, storage of hydrogen and refuelling of aircraft. In a further sub-work package, other uses of hydrogen at airports, e.g. for ground handling services, will be investigated and tested.

"The BSR HyAirport project is an important step for us on our way to the energy transition in aviation," explains Jan Eike Blohme-Hardegen, Head of the Environmental Department at Hamburg Airport. "There are still many questions to be answered before the regular use of hydrogen and we are happy to be doing this in close dialogue with partners who are just as committed to finding answers as we are." The conversion of some of the ground transport services to hydrogen propulsion is a key component of the "Net Zero 2035" project, which will make Hamburg Airport CO2 emission-free in ground operations by 2035. Hamburg Airport is also involved in a number of national and international projects for the introduction of hydrogen as an energy source in aviation.