Finavia pilots hydrogen fuel at Helsinki Airport

Finnish airport operator Finavia will pilot hydrogen use for heavy airport equipment at Helsinki Airport as a part of the HyAirport Hydrogen Project, a European initiative to reduce fossil fuel use at airports in the Baltic Sea region. Funded by the European Union’s Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme , the project received a $4 million euro ($4.3 million) grant to explore hydrogen power at Helsinki Airport (HEL) to reduce emissions and contribute to Finavia’s sustainability targets. [caption id="attachment_57137766" align="alignright" width="372"] (Photo/HEL)[/caption] Finavia aims to reduce carbon emissions from its operations to net zero by 2025, according to a release from the company. The hydrogen project will be operational by early next year, the release stated. “ Hydrogen is a potential energy source for heavy equipment and machines at airports,” Mikko Viinikainen , vice president of sustainability and environment at Finavia, told Air Cargo Next . “At Finavia airports, including Helsinki Airport, the greatest emission reductions could be achieved in winter maintenance machines such as snow blowers and sweeper blowers that cannot be electrified due to their huge power demand.” The HyAirport project will use gaseous hydrogen to power maintenance equipment, he said. Finavia will also examine hydrogen-powered aircraft and fueling needs. Further, the project will give “valuable experience on the storing and delivering of hydrogen,” Viinikainen said. The future of sustainability at airports will include hydrogen, sooner rather than later, he said, making this project particularly important. “Hydrogen-powered aircraft are expected to start operating before the end of the decade,” Viinikainen said. “Airports need to start gathering know-how on the future needs and at the same time assess the opportunities the new power source brings to airport operations. “The goal of the international hydrogen project is to develop and test the hydrogen supply chain from production to the fueling of airport equipment and aircraft.” Fitting into the supply chain Hydrogen has not been as heavily explored as other carbon removal pathways, such as sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and electric vehicles. However, it could have a significant role in aviation, despite some challenges, Julio Friedmann , Carbon Direct’s chief scientist, told Air Cargo Next . “The benefit of hydrogen is that it has no carbon and is very light — a good attribute for an aviation fuel,” Friedmann said. “The difficult part is hydrogen is an expensive fuel compared to jet [fuel] and has super low density unless liquified, which adds cost and risk.” Further, using hydrogen as a fuel requires a new fueling infrastructure, new planes, and new transportation and trading infrastructure, he added. “Unless it is locally produced, these are huge issues,” Friedmann said. “The Finnish project is tackling these things head on by locally producing clean hydrogen.” Hydrogen may be more beneficial in Nordic regions due to cleaner grids, low hydrogen costs and good short-haul markets, Friedmann said. But it may meet stiff opposition from SAFs, which are biofuels, he said. “Hydrogen fits into the supply chain of fuels during fuel production,” he said. “Hydrogen is added to fossil or biological carbon feedstocks to make fuels. If the hydrogen is low carbon — blue or green hydrogen — then that can reduce the carbon footprint. The carbon intensity of the hydrogen requires [the] demonstration of a low-carbon lifecycle.” Only renewable, hydro or nuclear energies are used to create green hydrogen, Friedmann said. Blue hydrogen is mainly produced from natural gas. Despite the challenges, Finavia officials are hopeful its hydrogen trial will be successful at several airports. Looking toward the future, Viinikainen said, “we are likely to manage airports using a hybrid model, where we have several low-emission technologies in use at the same time: renewable fuel combustion engine technology, small and medium-sized fleet electrification technology and hydrogen-powered solutions for larger machines.” Join Air Cargo Next for its second annual Air Cargo Tech Summit on Sept. 18-19 in Brussels, sponsored by Unisys and Brussels Airport and featuring a fireside chat with Brian Hodges, managing director, American Airlines Cargo. For more details and to register, click here .

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