United Kingdom – Manchester Airport has announced ambitions to become the first airport in the UK to have a direct supply of low carbon hydrogen fuel, as part of a cooperation with HyNet, one of the UK’s major Government-backed industrial decarbonization projects.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the airport and HyNet’s two founding partners has been signed. The hydrogen pipeline network for HyNet will be built and run by Cadent, a company that develops projects to decarbonize the energy industry.
The partners intend to use the MoU to deliver hydrogen to the aviation industry as soon as possible, including by connecting Manchester Airport to a pipeline that HyNet is building.
In order to decarbonize the aviation industry, hydrogen technology will be crucial. Short-haul hydrogen-powered aircraft are anticipated to enter service starting in the middle of the 2030s. According to a study done by FlyZero with the help of Manchester Airports Group (MAG), the demand for liquid hydrogen at a large airport like Manchester might reach 6.5 million liters per day by 2050.
HyNet brings together the infrastructure and technologies required to advance the region quickly toward a zero-carbon future, including the ability to produce low-carbon hydrogen that can be utilized to power future aircraft. As a result of the MoU, the parties will collaborate to evaluate the need for hydrogen in aviation over the next years and investigate the viability of linking Manchester Airport to the regional HyNet network.
Decarbonizing operations
Starting in the middle of 2020, HyNet will start to decarbonize the North West. By 2030, it will be able to take four million automobiles off the road by removing up to 10 million tonnes of carbon emissions from North West England and North Wales annually.
Manchester Airport, which is a component of MAG, has a plan to achieve net zero carbon emissions for its own operations by 2038, which is two years earlier than the objective set for UK airports in the Government’s Jet Zero Strategy and 12 years earlier than the national target for the UK. Along with other tools like modernizing airspace and using sustainable aviation fuel, the use of hydrogen fuel technology will be crucial in the effort to decarbonize aviation (SAF).
