ZeroAvia: 100 CRJ700 Motors to American

Dean Sigler Announcements, Electric Aircraft Components, Electric Powerplants, Fuel Cells, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Your Jet May Become a Prop Plane Bombardier’s (Commuter Regional Jet) CRJ700 has been in service for over 21 years, and may be about to receive a power system that will make it one of the cleanest alternatives in air travel. According to electric-flight.eu, “American Airlines plans to convert most of its CRJ700 fleet to environmentally friendly engines,” particularly ZeroAvia’s ZA2000 RJ drive train, electrified by hydrogen fuel cells. American, a shareholder in ZeroAvia, operates a fleet of CRJ 700s through its American Eagle regional airline subsidiary.  Converting the airplanes from their current General Electric CF34-8C1 to hydrogen-fueled ZA2000s will extend the lives of the planes and make them the cleanest things in the sky. Robert Isom, CEO of American Airlines, said: “To accelerate the transition of commercial aviation to a low-carbon future, investments in promising technologies, including alternative forms of propulsion, are required.” Val Miftakhov, CEO and founder of ZeroAvia, added, “At this early stage in our work together, …

Universal Hydrogen End-to-End

Dean Sigler Announcements, Electric Powerplants, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

In an “end-to-end” demonstration of its proprietary liquid hydrogen module, Universal Hydrogen Co. has successfully run a megawatt-class fuel cell powertrain.  “End-to-End,” in this case means “[the] demonstration of a hydrogen molecule moving from our filler/dispenser into our storage module and then into our powertrain is the first time that all the pieces of our product portfolio for regional aviation have come together,” said Paul Eremenko, co-founder and CEO of Universal Hydrogen. “The next step is to upgrade our flight testbed to fly the powertrain fueled by our modules.” In a simplified interface for a complex process, the liquid hydrogen module “is the core of the company’s fuel services offering for aviation.”  Looking like any other intermodal freight and airport cargo handling equipment, each module contains 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of liquid hydrogen.  Capable of storing it for long periods without boiloff, the module’s internal systems convert the cryogenic H2 into a warm gaseous H2 consumed by the powertrain Designed …

Hydrogen Capsules for Swappable Energy

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Hydrogen capsules, quickly swappable and motor pods easily switched on a long wing share a common theme.  H2-Mobile, a French web site, shared three stories that share forms of encapsulation, one pointing back to a story your editor wrote about a decade ago. An HUV (Hydrogen Utility Vehicle) from NamX A French-Moroccan company, NamX showed a car co-developed with Pininfarina, and the sleek sedan reportedly can hit 294 kilometers per hour (182 mph) and accelerate from zero to 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) in 4.3 seconds.  Most surprising, perhaps is the car’s method of storing energy. Michael Torregrossa, writing in H2-Mobile, reports that, “Present for the first time at the Paris Motor Show, NamX lifts the veil on its NAMX hydrogen capsule distribution device.  Called CapXtores, this new network will begin its deployments in 2024.”  Seemingly a larger version of a capsule battery distribution system created for Gogoro, a Taiwanese scooter manufacturer, the NamX concept car can be refueled …