The French airport manager ADP and the industrial gases group Air Liquide will together create the first joint engineering company aimed at supporting the development of hydrogen infrastructure in airports around the world, the two groups announced on Wednesday.
Whether for the mobility of runway equipment on the ground from 2024, for that of certain aircraft after 2035, or for future carbon-free synthetic aeronautical fuels, hydrogen will be "
one of the good energy vectors
" for tomorrow's aviation , underlined Matthieu Giard, hydrogen director of Air Liquide and Edward Arkwright, executive director of the ADP group, during an interview with AFP.
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After a year of feasibility study carried out with Airbus to determine the necessary infrastructures in the airports of Orly (to the south of Paris) and Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (to the north), the two groups have joined forces to propose an offer of engineering services to “
support airports in their transition to hydrogen
” in France and abroad.
According to Edward Arkwright, the adaptation of airport platforms so that they can use hydrogen is necessary for their "
transformation and their competitiveness
".
ADP will bring its expertise in airport management and Air Liquide its experience ranging from production by electrolysis, liquefaction, storage and transport of hydrogen (liquid) to aircraft.
One of the main questions to be settled is whether to produce the hydrogen on site, via the electrolysis of water by large inputs of carbon-free electricity, or whether it can be transported from elsewhere, underlined Matthieu Giard of Air Liquide.
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For Orly-Roissy, the study showed a need for electricity "
three times greater than current needs
" and a need for "
20 hectares of land
" which must be reserved now even if the equipment will not be installed for years. .
“
Infrastructures of this type serve an airport registered in a territory, which may also have hydrogen needs;
they can therefore be made available to territorial actors
”, underlined Edward Arkwright.
