Hydrogen Fueling Stations for Airports, in both gaseous and liquid form
AIR8466
Gaseous Hydrogen Fueling and Liquid Hydrogen Fueling at cryogenic temperatures are two different types of fuel stored in different types of vessels with safety mitigations. Similar to CNG & LNG at the same location, the objective of the guideline SAE AIR 8466 is to start with an overarching SAE Aerospace Information Report (AIR) for both gaseous and liquid hydrogen fueling stations and after publishing, establishing a family of documents covering these categories of fueling as determined by the SAE AE-5CH team.
SAE AIR 8466 is to establish a baseline for hydrogen fueling station specifications and process limits for both gaseous and liquid hydrogen fueling of aircraft (eCTOL, eRotor, eVTOL, LTA, etc.) at the airport from small aircraft to widebody. Hydrogen fueling process limits described herein (including fuel temperature, the maximum flow rate, time required, etc.) are affected by factors such as ambient temperature, fuel delivery temperature, and initial pressure in the hydrogen storage system.
At the airport similar to conventional hydrocarbon fuels, there will be both mobile fueling trailers and stationary hydrogen fueling stations which are planned to be within the SAE AIR 8466 scope. A further goal is to harmonize and establish common aircraft fueling safety definitions and wherever possible with other SAE, EUROCAE standards and NFPA codes, etc. standards alike.
Gaseous Hydrogen Fueling and Liquid Hydrogen Fueling at cryogenic temperatures are two very different types of fuel stored in different types of vessels with safety mitigations. The goal is to start with an all-encompassing SAE AIR for hydrogen fueling and after publishing, establishing a family of documents covering categories of fueling as determined by the SAE AE-5CH team.
Rationale: Today, aviation account for around 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions, but 3.5% when non-CO₂ impacts on climate are considered. Although aviation represents a relatively small percentage of global emissions today, that could rise to 22% by 2050, as more people fly and other sectors decarbonize more quickly. Though Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) offer an interim solution to reducing emissions, it does not solve the greenhouse gas issue, are much more energy intensive, whereas hydrogen as a fuel, holds great potential to decarbonize aviation as well as other transportation sectors.
Presently there are established codes & standards for ground vehicles at SAE, ISO, NFPA, etc. that could also be applicable to some applications for hydrogen at the airport. While there are some existing fuel cell and hydrogen standards for Aerospace (such as the SAE/EUROCAE efforts) there is a need to create new standardization efforts, outlined herein. Large aircraft such as a narrow body or a wide body require up to 100x to 1000x more hydrogen storage than ground vehicle fueling (from 1000kg to over 10000kg). With this larger amount for aircraft fueling, there will be an exponentially larger need for hydrogen supply and fueling on site.
The VFS has created a H2-Aero Whitepaper called "Development of a Multimodal Hydrogen Airport Hub", as well as other reports etc. have recently established a baseline for hydrogen fueling estimate per aircraft type. This along with SAE AE-5CH team input will be used to determine the first Aerospace Information Report for fueling of hydrogen aircraft with both gaseous and liquid hydrogen.
