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Search for “Bernard van Dijk” on LinkedIn. He is a professor on an Aviation University. He has a very solid story about why hydrogen will never work in airplane

Search for “Bernard van Dijk” on LinkedIn. He is a professor on an Aviation University. He has a very solid story about why hydrogen will never work in airplanes. I’m addition, a well explained video about it: https://youtu.be/nrCE9duCej0 https://youtu.be/nrCE9duCej0

walrus01 4y ago
I wouldn't say never, but based on the tankage requirements and tank structural needs for high pressures, it'll be limited to short range regional craft only. There is still a lot of market in the size of things like the Q400 flown by Alaska Air. Like a Seattle to Montana flight.
lifeisstillgood 4y ago
An interesting video - but I am unconvinced this is "hydrogen can't work" - just the current approach won't work. The point seems to be (watch the video) that the fuel is currently stored in wings of aircraft, which in layman's terms means the wings bend up carrying the weight of the fuselage, but the weight of the fuel is in the wings meaning fuel weight does not contribute to wing bend Current hydrogen fuel power trains put the hydrogen into the fuselage in big tanks. This means the fuel weight now does count to wing bending and so fundamentally you can either take off without passengers or you can have your wings snap. The answer seems to be put the hydrogen fuel in the wings. I could not find the argument against that. I suspect there is a lot more in the weeds in the industry
- nickff 4y ago
  >"The answer seems to be put the hydrogen fuel in the wings. I could not find the argument against that. I suspect there is a lot more in the weeds in the industry " This is impractical with current technology. The insulation for liquid hydrogen in wings would be impractically thick and heavy. The structure for pressure vessels for gas in wings would also be impractical.
- doctor_eval 4y ago
  Err… not all the fuel goes in the wings, and not all planes put their fuel in the wings. This argument makes no sense to me.
  - nickff 4y ago
    I believe that all modern commercial aircraft, and many smaller ones store substantial proportions of their fuel in the wings.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - doctor_eval 4y ago
      Of course, but just because more weight is going into the fuselage doesn't mean the wings are going to "snap off" because the wings are empty. I mean, if the wing tanks aren't needed, surely you could replace them with structure that allows the wings to take the higher loading? Even in the 747 and A380, the majority of fuel is stored near the wing roots, so the whole idea reads like a non sequitur to me.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  The reason hydrogen in the wings doesn't work is because wings are thin and hydrogen tanks need thick walls. Also a lot more volume (hydrogen is not super mass inefficient as a fuel, but is super volume inefficient.)
- mmaurizi 4y ago
  Seems like you need a flying wing design so you can have gigantic wings to put your giant tanks (and also passengers) in. Maybe this https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/futuristic-flying-v-airplane-concept-puts-passengers-inside-wings-ncna1013851 https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/futuristic-flying-v-air... ?
jillesvangurp 4y ago
This professor has a nice theory (hydrogen will never work in air planes), which is trivially falsified by simply pointing at planes that fly that use hydrogen as a fuel. That seems to have already happened. There are multiple companies that have flying prototypes. Hydrogen planes are now an engineering and logistics challenge. The science is ancient history.

walrus01 4y ago

I wouldn't say never, but based on the tankage requirements and tank structural needs for high pressures, it'll be limited to short range regional craft only. There is still a lot of market in the size of things like the Q400 flown by Alaska Air. Like a Seattle to Montana flight.

lifeisstillgood 4y ago

An interesting video - but I am unconvinced this is "hydrogen can't work" - just the current approach won't work. The point seems to be (watch the video) that the fuel is currently stored in wings of aircraft, which in layman's terms means the wings bend up carrying the weight of the fuselage, but the weight of the fuel is in the wings meaning fuel weight does not contribute to wing bend Current hydrogen fuel power trains put the hydrogen into the fuselage in big tanks. This means the fuel weight now does count to wing bending and so fundamentally you can either take off without passengers or you can have your wings snap. The answer seems to be put the hydrogen fuel in the wings. I could not find the argument against that. I suspect there is a lot more in the weeds in the industry

nickff 4y ago
>"The answer seems to be put the hydrogen fuel in the wings. I could not find the argument against that. I suspect there is a lot more in the weeds in the industry " This is impractical with current technology. The insulation for liquid hydrogen in wings would be impractically thick and heavy. The structure for pressure vessels for gas in wings would also be impractical.
doctor_eval 4y ago
Err… not all the fuel goes in the wings, and not all planes put their fuel in the wings. This argument makes no sense to me.
- nickff 4y ago
  I believe that all modern commercial aircraft, and many smaller ones store substantial proportions of their fuel in the wings.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - doctor_eval 4y ago
    Of course, but just because more weight is going into the fuselage doesn't mean the wings are going to "snap off" because the wings are empty. I mean, if the wing tanks aren't needed, surely you could replace them with structure that allows the wings to take the higher loading? Even in the 747 and A380, the majority of fuel is stored near the wing roots, so the whole idea reads like a non sequitur to me.
dragonwriter 4y ago
The reason hydrogen in the wings doesn't work is because wings are thin and hydrogen tanks need thick walls. Also a lot more volume (hydrogen is not super mass inefficient as a fuel, but is super volume inefficient.)
mmaurizi 4y ago
Seems like you need a flying wing design so you can have gigantic wings to put your giant tanks (and also passengers) in. Maybe this https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/futuristic-flying-v-airplane-concept-puts-passengers-inside-wings-ncna1013851 https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/futuristic-flying-v-air... ?

jillesvangurp 4y ago

This professor has a nice theory (hydrogen will never work in air planes), which is trivially falsified by simply pointing at planes that fly that use hydrogen as a fuel. That seems to have already happened. There are multiple companies that have flying prototypes. Hydrogen planes are now an engineering and logistics challenge. The science is ancient history.