Hydrogen-based aircraft auxiliary power generation: Economic and ecological comparative assessment of preventive maintenance implications

Abstract

With European governments and societies enforcing pathways towards carbon neutrality by the year 2050, the aviation industry is under pressure in its pursuit of reduced climate impacts. Thus, new revolutionary energy carrier concepts such as hydrogen-hybrid aircraft are required to decouple emissions from growing air traffic volume. However, besides technological challenges for the airborne storage of hydrogen, there are significant uncertainties associated with the overall economics and environmental sustainability of these concepts. Based on established industry standards, we will examine how the maintenance efforts, traditionally constituting up to a quarter of direct operating expenses, can be expected to change with the introduction of hydrogen. Additionally, we examine ecological implications for maintaining these new technologies so that our study helps to identify anticipated changes for the necessary maintenance and contributes to a thorough assessment of ecological implications with these energy carrier concepts.