The UK’s ZeroAvia, a leader in hydrogen-electric solutions for aviation, has announced a collaboration with its strategic investor Shell, who will design and build two commercial-scale mobile refuellers for use at ZeroAvia’s research and development site in Hollister, California.
At ZeroAvia’s test facility in Hollister, Shell will also provide compressed, low-carbon hydrogen supply to the facility and other locations in the Western U.S.
This strategic collaboration will support the development of ZeroAvia’s flight testing program in the U.S. and will advance the company’s Hydrogen Airport Refueling Ecosystem (HARE) on a larger scale.
The deal with Shell comes as ZeroAvia also unveils Europe’s first landside-to-airside hydrogen airport pipeline. The 100 meter long hydrogen pipeline runs alongside ZeroAvia’s hangar at Cotswold Airport in the UK.
ZeroAvia’s zero-emission powertrains use hydrogen fuel in a fuel cell to create a chemical reaction which produces electricity.
That electricity then powers electric motors that spin the propellers, while producing no emissions other than water.
Arnab Chatterjee, VP Infrastructure, ZeroAvia, says: “These milestone announcements represent significant hydrogen infrastructure advancement for ZeroAvia and the industry. Hydrogen-electric aviation is the only practical, holistic, and economically attractive solution to aviation’s growing climate change impact. Fuel provision needs to be economical and convenient for airlines to achieve operational cost benefits and ZeroAvia is leading these pioneering infrastructure developments together with leading partners like Shell.”
“Shell recognizes the aviation sector has unique challenges in decarbonization and needs practical and scalable net-zero solutions,” adds Oliver Bishop, General Manager, Hydrogen at Shell. “We believe ZeroAvia’s technology is a viable option, and this agreement will allow us to demonstrate successful provision of low-carbon hydrogen supply while supporting development of codes, standards, and refueling protocols for hydrogen-powered aviation.”
ZeroAvia will begin flight-testing its ZA600 hydrogen-electric powertrain this summer using its two Dornier-228 testbed aircraft, first in the UK, and later replicating this work on the US-based demonstrator.
