HYDROGEN AS AVIATION FUEL - A COMPARISON WITH HYDROCARBON FUELS

Depletion of fossil fuels and environmental considerations have led en gineers and scientists to anticipate the need to develop a clean, rene wable and sustainable energy system. In general, they agree that in su ch a system hydrogen will be used as an energy carrier. One of the are as in which hydrogen will be replacing fossil fuels is air transportat ion, an area that has been under research for several decades. Hydroge n as an energy carrier for use in airplanes has some unique attributes like global availability, safety, minimum pollution and light weight, making it an ideal fuel. This paper briefly reviews hydrogen as a fue l in aviation, compares it with other aviation fuels, and discusses th e possible future developments and the goals in this held. (C) 1997 In ternational Association for Hydrogen Energy.