The winners of the worldwide call for expressions of interest regarding the setup of an Hydrogen branch in airports

Groupe ADP, Airbus, Air France-KLM and the Île-de-France Region, with the support of Choose Paris Region, have launched, last February 11th, a call for expressions of interest named "H2 HUB AIRPORT", to explore the opportunities offered by hydrogen and to boost air transport decarburization. This initiative, with an international dimension and unprecedented in the air transport industry, was a big success with 124 applications received. 11 winners have been selected to contribute to the surge of the hydrogen airport ecosystem of tomorrow.

The energy transition in Air transport is underway and the hydrogen airport ecosystem is one of the essential operational building blocks to shape the arrival of the Airbus hydrogen aircraft planned for 2035, while promoting the short-term development of hydrogen uses on the ground.

That is the purpose of this call for expressions of interest, structured around three fields:
- Upstream of the value chain: production, storage, transport and distribution of hydrogen (gaseous and liquid) in the airport environment (storage systems, micro-liquefaction, aircraft fueling, etc.)
- Downstream of the value chain: diversification of hydrogen uses and services in airport and aeronautical (ground handling vehicles and equipment, rail transport at airports, energy supply for buildings or aircraft during ground handling operations, etc.)
- Circular economy around hydrogen (recovery of hydrogen dissipated during liquid hydrogen fueling, recovery of a by-product from a reaction to produce decarbonized hydrogen, etc.).

"H2 HUB AIRPORT" call for expressions of interest allowed for the auditioning of major industrial players, SMEs, startups and entities from the academic and research world, sometimes gathered in consortium. To select the winners, the jury relied on the expertise of Philippe Boucly, Chairman of France Hydrogène, and Emmanuel Julien, Senior Advisor at Enea Consulting, a firm specialising in energy transition.

The 11 winning projects are key building blocks for the building and the expansion of the hydrogen value chain in an airport environment and, through their complementarity, cover all the specific issues for an airport ecosystem, with different timeframes: some projects are in the R&D phase, while others, more advanced, could be subject of displays or commissioning in the medium term.

Over the next few weeks, working meetings between partners and winners will be held to discuss the issues at stake, to share roadmaps of the various projects. The purpose is to contribute to surging long-term solutions that are economically feasible, and to be able to carry out the first on-site experiments from 2023.

You will find the press release in attachment.