Hydrogen-powered jets to come from mid- 2030s: CEO

The head of a U.S. company that champions fuels told Reuters that Airbus and Boeing Co will launch all-new successors to their best-selling single-aisle jets powered by hydrogen from around the middle of next decade.

Paul Eremenko, chief executive of Universal Hydrogen, counters that it is too early to think about hydrogen for a future 737 successor, while Airbus strongly supports hydrogen but initially for smaller planes.

Eremenko, who spoke at the Reuters Next conference, is a former chief technology officer for Airbus and United Technologies, now part of Raytheon Technologies.

He co-founded Universal Hydrogen last year with a plan to speed up the introduction of hydrogen, initially for 40 -- 60 seat regional airplanes, based on fuel cells.

But Eremenko has also set his sights on breaking into the busiest part of the aviation market, the 150 seat-plus single-aisles dominated by the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A 320 neo.

I think there will be a new airplane from both aircraft manufacturers in that class, probably around the mid- 2030 s, which means they would have to make a decision by the late 2020s, Eremenko said.

We want to make sure that the decision is to make that a hydrogen airplane. Boeing doesn't seem to have ruled that out. In July, it said that hydrogen has a future but that significant hurdles must be overcome before it is widely used. It said sustainable aviation fuel offers the quickest and most effective potential.

The tenor of the conversation is going to change by the time this is in service in the regional market in 2025, according to Eremenko.

When it is visible in commercial service I think it will be uncontroversial and irrefutable that the next generation has to be a hydrogen airplane in the 2030s. Experts say that the high cost of hydrogen, the challenges of storing and supercooling the gas and building a reliable and widespread supply system, as well as certification, must all be addressed.

Eremenko said Universal Hydrogen is in discussions with U.S. regulators to show that hydrogen is safe.

Hydrogen-powered airplane flight is not new. The predecessor to NASA flew a modified bomber with one engine running on hydrogen in 1957. The Soviet Union flew a hydrogen-powered TU 155 airliner in 1988, replacing kerosene in one engine.

There is no real fundamental science to be done, and there is no fundamental invention, Eremenko said. It is engineering, hard engineering, and a lot of engineering will need to happen over the next decade to make this possible. Universal Hydrogen wants to provide hydrogen if it penetrates the single-aisle market, as it wants to replace turboprop engines on regional aircraft with retrofittable electrical ones powered by a hydrogen-based fuel cell.

S. engine venture CFM, the biggest supplier of gas turbines for the single-aisle market, unveiled a radical open-bladed design capable of burning convention fuel or hydrogen from the mid- 2030s.

Eremenko acknowledged a standoff over infrastructure for green hydrogen produced using renewable energy.

He said that unless there is infrastructure, nobody is going to invest in the infrastructure and that Boeings and Airbuses of this world aren't going to build a hydrogen airplane.

Universal Hydrogen plans to test-fly a hydrogen-powered regional airplane next year, hopefully well before the end of the year, Eremenko said.

British-American firm ZeroAvia will collaborate with MHI RJ Aviation Group in October to develop hydrogen-electric propulsion for regional jets.