Flying on hydrogen from Rotterdam The Hague Airport: almost ready for boarding

3 May 2023

New technologies and fuels are being explored worldwide to make flying more sustainable. At Rotterdam The Hague Airport, partners aim to enable Europe’s first hydrogen-powered passenger flights, with Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport playing a key role.

Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTHA) is the regional airport for the Rotterdam and The Hague area. RTHA handles around 2 million passengers annually and connects to 50 European destinations. Besides being an important European hub, Rotterdam The Hague Airport is also a testing ground where plenty of work is being done on the aviation of the future. RTHA is an international test site for sustainable innovations in hydrogen and battery-electric aviation and is part of the Royal Schiphol Group.

Photo of the main entrance to the RTHA Airport terminal building

Innovation and collaboration for cleaner, sustainable aviation

Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport (RHIA) plays a crucial role in this: a community of companies, research institutes and governments working together towards a cleaner, quieter and sustainable future for aviation. One of RHIA’s programmes, the DutcH2 Aviation Hub, sees parties such as TU Delft, NLR, AeroDelft, Air Products, KLM, ZeroAvia and Conscious Aerospace working together. The development of hydrogen-powered aviation goes beyond new aircraft and associated propulsion technology. Innovation is needed within the entire chain. For example, the production and import of hydrogen, transport to airports, storage at airports and hydrogen refueling. The program serves as a community for organizations active in the hydrogen value chain in aviation and as a springboard for the formation of projects in this area, with the aim of researching, testing and demonstrating the entire process – from production to operation. Within the DutcH2 Aviation Hub, several hydrogen-related projects are already taking place at Rotterdam The Hague Airport. The European TULIPS project, for example, will soon carry out the first hydrogen tests at the airport. The focus will be on delivering, storing and refueling liquid hydrogen. And the European GOLIAT project will showcase liquid hydrogen refueling technology and taxi tests with the hydrogen-powered HY4 aircraft from H2FLY.

Commercial European hydrogen-powered flights

Various partners and companies in the RHIA community are working towards the first hydrogen-powered flights from Rotterdam. This not only involves flying on hydrogen but also all of the associated procedures and facilities at the airport, including the necessary infrastructure for storage and distribution. They are developing a total concept for the hydrogen value chain. In the first phase, hydrogen-powered flights will be deployed to regional European destinations. Rotterdam The Hague Airport collaborates with ZeroAvia and Hamburg Airport in setting up demonstration flights between the airports in 2025.

Wilma van Dijk, CEO of Rotterdam The Hague Airport, addressed these plans in an earlier press release: "Hydrogen is a potentially sustainable alternative to flying on kerosene. This collaboration will help us demonstrate and validate our airport’s hydrogen infrastructure and the associated procedures. This will accelerate the transition towards zero-emission aviation. Various partners and companies in the RHIA community are working towards the first hydrogen-powered flights from Rotterdam."

The total concept for hydrogen flights

The collaboration on hydrogen flying comprises four main components, explains Daan van Dijk, Program Manager DutcH2 Aviation Hub. "We, of course, need to develop aircraft that can fly on hydrogen. Airbus is working on its Airbus ZEROe concept aircraft and startups such as ZeroAvia, H2FLY and Conscious Aerospace are working on retrofitting existing aircraft. Organizations such as AeroDelft, NLR and TU Delft are doing the same, but then for research related projects. Then there is the additional need for infrastructure. Hydrogen infrastructure at the airport is required to facilitate hydrogen-powered aircraft. This type of infrastructure must meet the highest safety requirements and is fairly new to airports compared to current kerosene dominated infrastructure. This includes for instance hydrogen storage facilities and (mobile) refuelers. The third component is the hydrogen molecule itself. There must be plenty of green hydrogen available and eventually in liquified form (which means that the hydrogen needs to be cooled to a temperature of -252,8 °C). Local production of hydrogen is a must, but the import of green hydrogen (carriers) is also necessary and even necessary given the green energy abundancy of countries such as Morocco, Spain and South Africa. The Rotterdam region, including the Port of Rotterdam, is putting a lot of effort into this. RTHA has joined this movement and is a link in the regional hydrogen chain. And lastly, the fourth component is the hydrogen infrastructure on the destination side. Investing in a green corridor, a route between airports, with fellow European airports is essential. We are already working with other European airports on European projects and within our DutcH2 Aviation Hub program, and more collaborations with European aviation hydrogen clusters can be expected."

Significant challenges
Hydrogen-powered aviation is a relatively new phenomenon and comes with its fair share of challenges. Daan van Dijk explains that the aforementioned issues concerning the availability of green hydrogen and developing new infrastructure are not the only challenges on the road to flying on hydrogen. "We are dealing with a, for aviation, completely new fuel. Current standards, infrastructure and fuel (storage and handling) knowledge are kerosene dominated. Hydrogen applications at airports, and the corresponding value chains, are yet limited, not to mention that liquid hydrogen applications at airports are even scarcer. We are trying to change this by setting up collaborative projects at our airport that showcase the applicability of hydrogen within aviation. Think of projects that focus on liquid hydrogen storage and handling at airports or projects that aim to improve incident response given these new fuels. We bring the involved organizations and all the learnings together in our DutcH2 Aviation Hub hydrogen program at the airport."
Rotterdam Hydrogen Hub
Wilma van Dijk believes it is logical for Rotterdam to play a leading role in the development of hydrogen-powered aviation, as the region has several vital ingredients. "Many aviation-related manufacturing companies are located here. RTHA is in a region that is shaping itself into ‘Europe’s Hydrogen Hub’. RTHA also meets all the required certifications and makes itself available as a safe and, at the same time, operational test and development environment for sustainable aviation applications. Also, the current range of destinations makes RTHA ideally suited to commercially exploit this development; 80% of its current flights are contenders for hydrogen-fuelled flights in the future. Finally, with the developments in shipping in our Rotterdam port, there is a lot of hydrogen knowledge in the region. And we collaborate extensively with TU Delft and NLR who have and are building on the necessary knowledge on hydrogen-powered flying."
Hydrogen by itself is not the solution
Hydrogen-related developments are of great importance to the energy transition and are followed closely worldwide. But according to Wilma van Dijk, energy transition and climate adaptation do not rest on hydrogen alone. "There is no silver bullet. Making aviation more sustainable is only possible if multiple solutions are further developed. Hydrogen is one of them, but battery-electric and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are also viable options. At the previous Hydrogen Summit, we announced that we would develop a roadmap and implement several steps. We have since launched several projects and our overarching DutcH2 Aviation Hub hydrogen program"