This European project, which will run until October 2026, has officially begun. It brings together 16 partners, including airports, in an area stretching from Dublin to Helsinki.
BSR HyAirport is an Interreg-type programme, co-funded by the EU to the tune of €3.8 million (around $4.2 million), and concerns the Baltic Sea region. It is coordinated by Hamburg airport*, which has just kicked off the project. The aim of BSR HyAirport is to prepare for the arrival of gaseous hydrogen as an alternative fuel on short-haul flights with aircraft carrying up to 80 passengers. A configuration particularly well suited for flight connections in the Baltic Sea Region.
Hydrogen use and supply at airports
The project partners** will be testing and evaluating this technology. At the same time, they will be preparing to meet challenges such as storage, handling and supply of green hydrogen. They will also address the legal framework and the supply chain (production, transport and refuelling of aircraft). A working group will also look at other uses for hydrogen at airports, for ground handling services for example.
“The BSR HyAirport Project is a significant step for us on our path towards the aviation industry’s energy transition,” 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. We are glad to do this in close collaboration with partners who are just as committed to finding answers as we are.”
*which aims to achieve carbon neutrality in its ground operations by 2035.
**These include airports (Hamburg, Sylt and Lübeck in Germany, Poznan in Poland, Tallin in Estonia, Riga in Latvia, the national airports company of Lithuania, Finavia in Finland, Stockholm-Arlanda and Vaxjo Smaland in Sweden), the German airline Sylt Air, the Latvian hydrogen association, the Latvian University of Science and Technology, the Swedish fuel cell manufacturer PowerCell and the Latvian company Gulf Stream oil.
Do you want to find out more about the latest European hydrogen projects? Then our last 2 articles on the subject should be of interest to you. You can read them here and here.
Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King
