A UK government-backed project to develop a cryogenic hydrogen fuel system looks set to end prematurely after a previous departure from the industry consortium led the remaining partners to reassess its feasibility.
Called HyFIVE, the three-year project was launched in 2024 with £20 million ($27 million) of funding from the UK Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) alongside a £17 million contribution from industry.
Led by Marshall Aerospace and involving GKN Aerospace and Parker Meggitt, plus the universities of Bath, Cardiff, and Manchester, the initiative aimed to “develop, test and validate a modular, scalable cryogenic hydrogen fuel system architecture”.
But GKN’s decision last month to pull out of the consortium – itself a direct consequence of Airbus slowing plans for its ZEROe hydrogen-powered aircraft – has forced Marshall and Parker Meggitt to also re-evaluate the project.
The pair say that “after careful review” of GKN’s withdrawal, they “came to the conclusion that the HyFIVE project objectives can no longer be fully met”.
“Marshall, Parker Meggitt and the other consortium partners are discussing a reduction in the scope that will likely see the project complete by the end of the year.”
Marshall says it “remains in close communication” with the consortium partners, plus funding bodies Innovate UK and the ATI “to re-shape the project in a manner that preserves valuable research findings to date and enables them to be built upon in the future”.
No details on how the project will be re-scoped were immediately available, however.
Intended to be suitable for “multiple aircraft classes and compatible with either hydrogen electric propulsion or hydrogen combustion powertrains”, the project was due to culminate in 2027 with ground tests of an integrated system at technology readiness level 6.
By that point, the partners said they would have “opened a range of flight-demonstration and exploitation paths with prospective customers” and “developed a customer-ready supply chain and industrialisation strategy”.
“Timely achievement of these objectives will support the successful introduction of a new generation of zero emissions aircraft in the 2030s,” the consortium announced in 2024.
Unfortunately, the project’s rapid timeline was based on expectation of an emerging market need that hinged on Airbus’s plans for its first hydrogen-powered ZEROe aircraft to enter service around 2035.
However, the airframer’s decision earlier this year to push back service entry by up to a decade has forced potential suppliers to recalibrate their related research and technology spending.
As a result of an internal review, GKN announced last month that it was refocussing its investments in hydrogen technology and was pulling out of the HyFIVE consortium.
HyFIVE was to cover five key technology development areas for hydrogen fuel systems: storage, conveyance, indication, fuelling and venting.
In the consortium, Marshall was providing “its expertise in complex system design, integration and certification”, Parker Meggitt was responsible for sensing, thermal management and fluid conveyance, while GKN was to contribute “advanced materials and hydrogen cryogenic system optimisation know-how”.
A supply chain of small and medium-sized companies was also to be developed “laying the groundwork” for future industrialisation of the technology.
While Airbus’s ZEROe delay continues to ripple through sector, hydrogen-powered aircraft – albeit at a smaller scale initially – remain a central pillar of the UK’s net-zero aviation ambitions, minutes from a recent meeting of the government-chaired Jet Zero Taskforce show.
Released on 1 July, the minutes of the 15 May meeting of the taskforce’s ‘Expert’ group, detail discussion within the Hydrogen Task & Finish Group (HTFG) – a topic-specific sub-group – chaired by David Debney, the ATI’s head of whole aircraft technology.
In ensuring that hydrogen aircraft can be “introduced in a way that is commercially sustainable”, the group will “focus on smaller, domestic aircraft as these will be available to enter service first”, the minutes disclose.
“It will then consider how these initial operations would support scaling up operations to larger aircraft in the future.”
Outputs from the HTFG will inform the required capabilities of a hydrogen-powered aircraft, a roadmap showing the timelines of the “critical enablers” for their commercial operation, and projected demand for hydrogen from the sector.
Points raised within the group’s discussions included the need to “understand commercialisation barriers” and how to “bridge the economic gap for the transition to hydrogen aircraft”.
Additionally, “there was a key question around timing and when further commitments to support zero-emission flight can be made”.
The Jet Zero Taskforce is designed to bring together government and stakeholders from across the UK aviation sector to unblock “barriers in delivering greener aviation”.
