Marshall’s HyFIVE consortium plans for liquid hydrogen fuel system demonstrator ground rig by 2027
Hydrogen propulsion represents a promising pathway to help achieve the aviation industry’s net zero goals by 2050. In March of this year, Marshall alongside other leading aviation partners, established HyFIVE as a consortium to develop a world-leading hydrogen fuel system and supply chain to support zero-emission aviation in the 2030s.
Other partners in the consortium include GKN Aerospace and Parker Meggitt, with Manchester, Bath and Cardiff universities engaged for research and development.
“We’re working closely with all our partners to progress liquid hydrogen fuel systems for aircraft. We have got interesting scope of work taking us through four-year programme to get us through to a ground demonstrator rig,” Lucy Skerritt, director aerostructures, Marshall, told Aerospace Global News.
Describing the consortium as a “key sustainable initiative”, Skerritt said it will advance the UK’s position as a leader in sustainable aviation and help progress the aerospace industry as a whole. With nearly £40m in funding already committed to the consortium, half which will come from government, the remainder is investment from industry stakeholders.
“The four-year project will take us through to 2027, when we will have a full demonstrator ground rig with a liquid hydrogen fuel system up and running. We will be working through our system requirements this year with a key milestone towards the end of Q3 in 2024,” continued Skerritt.
Max Brown, VP of technology hydrogen systems for GKN Aerospace, another partner in the consortium, expressed his delight at being involved in the HyFIVE consortium. “GKN Aerospace has a portfolio of hydrogen research programmes, including H2GEAR, H2FlyGHT for which we’re developing a cryogenic hydrogen-electric propulsion system. HyFIVE is a key part of our fuel systems development,” he said.
GKN Aerospace brings its engineering expertise to the table for HyFIVE. “We bring that aircraft and materials expertise, particularly in terms of our knowledge and understanding of composite materials and cryogenics, which is key to the success of liquid hydrogen fuel system.”
He also noted that across the board, the industrial engineering capability of all three consortium partners puts HyFIVE in a strong position.
Skerritt and Brown were joined by Tracy Rice, group vice president of technology and innovation, Parker Aerospace. Underlining Parker’s long legacy in the aviation fuel sector, Rice said: “We have been in business for over 100 years and have plenty of pedigree around aviation fuel systems, including traditional kerosene energy fuel systems. All those lessons we’ve learned are directly applicable to hydrogen fuel systems.”
Highlighting the pressing need for the industry to reduce its carbon emissions in order to grow sustainably and HyFIVE’s role in helping to achieve that Rice concluded: “We have to figure out a solution that is zero emissions. Ultimately, it’s our job to figure to and solve that problem or aerospace will not sustain itself.”
