In the wake of Universal Hydrogen’s difficulties, we asked Olivier Savin, founder of Blue Spirit Aero, for his take. He believes that the challenge of storing liquid hydrogen is perhaps one of the reasons for this failure. Instead, he has opted for a more realistic approach.

An engineer and pilot himself, Olivier Savin has been working on a hydrogen-powered aviation project for several years now, albeit on a more modest scale than his former competitor. Although saddened, he is not surprised by his competitor’s bankruptcy. For the founder of Blue Spirit Aero, “storing liquid hydrogen on board an aircraft is very complicated.” It poses safety problems, particularly in terms of the well-known phenomenon of “boil off” (evaporation). And while the liquid hydrogen capsules may seem like a good idea, in reality, “the reuse of these modules could eventually lead to a risk of wear and tear and leakage.”

A simpler infrastructure with gaseous hydrogen

In fact, the problem lies with the infrastructure. The economic dimension also comes from the fact that everything has to be built for the supply, and this may have deterred investors. “In comparison, it’s more realistic to bet on gaseous hydrogen, because everything exists off the shelf, such as small storage cylinders,” explains Olivier Savin. “For example, a mobile station like Atawey’s could be set up on a plot of land and supply a small fleet without any particular constraints.” Blue Spirit Aero has chosen to produce a small 4-seater aircraft, rather than a 70-seater regional jet that carries much more hydrogen on board.

“We’ve been more discreet and we haven’t raised 100 or 150 million dollars, but we’re making sure that we offer a more realistic technology to make sure that we can go all the way”, concludes Olivier Savin.

Do you want to learn more about Blue Spirit Aero? Then our latest articles on the start-up should interest you. You can read them here, here and here.

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Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Mariem Ben Tili