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Toyota and Mitsubishi are also adding more.

Author | Wang Lei

While hydrogen-powered cars are still on the sidelines, hydrogen-powered planes are ready to take off.

The latest financing that has attracted global attention, from ZeroAvia, an American company of hydrogen-electric aircraft, has just ushered in the largest amount of money since its inception.

Behind this round of financing is Airbus of France and Barclays Capital of the UK, and another investor that has to be mentioned is the new future city of Saudi Arabia, a Middle Eastern consortium.

Source: after ZeroAvia completes this round of financing, ZeroAvia will certify its first hydrogen electric engine, 600kW's ZA600 system, and then develop a larger engine project, ZA2000--, a 2-5.4MW platform. Earlier this year, ZeroAvia completed a test flight of a hydrogen fuel cell aircraft, and with more funding, zero-emission aircraft are getting closer and closer to us.

What is more interesting is that there are many big names for ZeroAvia platforms, such as Bill Gates and Li Ka-shing.

01. Having experienced a plane crash and just completed the maiden flight of the largest hydrogen energy plane, like a car, the plane is also faced with the transformation requirements of low-carbon environmental protection, and many start-ups are aiming at this field.

The original purpose of ZeroAvia is to transform the highly polluting aviation industry into a clean industry.

ZeroAvia was founded in California in 2017, and later set up research and development bases in the United States and the United Kingdom, mainly to develop new aviation powertrains based on hydrogen fuel cells.

Unlike other hydrogen airlines, ZeroAvia develops hydrogen-electric hybrid aircraft, and ZeroAvia believes that under the existing aircraft engine architecture, replacing it with hydrogen fuel cells will be a faster and more efficient solution.

Their project is also part of a British government-sponsored HyFlyer II research and development program to make small airliners more environmentally friendly. According to ZeroAvia's vision, they will complete the technical verification this year and open commercial routes by 2025.

Source: ZeroAvia ZeroAvia has received test flight certificates from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States, and they hope to launch a complete hydrogen aircraft solution in the 1930s.

Interestingly, the hydrogen-electric planes they developed are basically based on the prototypes of other companies. In other words, they don't build planes, but they help airlines build more environmentally friendly planes.

In September 2020, ZeroAvia completed the world's first test flight of a commercial aircraft powered by hydrogen fuel cells, when a six-seat aircraft took off from the research and development center in Cranfield, UK, and flew in the sky for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Source: ZeroAvia but the development of ZeroAvia has not been plain sailing. In April 2021, a hydrogen-powered ZeroAvia test plane suddenly crashed after losing power during a flight test.

Their plan was to reach a height of 1000 feet when both the battery and the fuel cell were activated, and then switch the plane to use only fuel cells. But after turning off the battery, the plane lost all the driving power on the propeller.

There was a pilot and a flight test observer on board, but fortunately, the two were not injured at that time. The cause of the accident found that as the ZeroAvia expanded its flight range to test higher speeds, the voltage generated by the freely rotating propeller increased to a point, which triggered the inverter's overvoltage protection and shut down the battery power supply system.

Source: ZeroAvia finally concluded by the British Aviation accident investigation Bureau (AAIB) that the accident had nothing to do with hydrogen fuel cell power systems, and ZeroAvia's reputation was preserved.

On January 19, 2023, ZeroAvia successfully made its maiden flight in the UK based on a hydrogen fuel cell technology verification aircraft modified from a 19-seat Dornier 228 twin-engine turboprop aircraft, the largest "hydrogen electric" aircraft in history.

The flight lasted 10 minutes, and the turboprop engine on the left side of the plane consists of a motor developed by ZeroAvia and a hydrogen fuel cell pack provided by PowerCell, while a Honeywell TPE-331 engine remains on the right.

Next, ZeroAvia will press ahead with a large project, ZA2000, with a 2-5.4MW powertrain designed for large commercial aircraft. The next step in the project is to work with Alaska Airlines to test a modified Dash 8400 aircraft that can carry 76 passengers and conduct its first flight test with a full-size engine in 2024.

02, the richest man favored the project, Gates and Li Ka-shing have invested, of course, ZeroAvia in a short period of time, can not do without the shoulders of giants.

Study the investors of this company, and you will find that there are a lot of big shots, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures (breakthrough energy venture capital firm) has appeared in ZeroAvia's financing history more than once.

In the latest round of financing, Breakthrough Energy Ventures also appears as a participant in the financing list.

Source: ZeroAvia in fact, as early as 2020, ZeroAvia received the first financing, led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, completed the $21 million financing in round A.

Who is Breakthrough Energy Ventures?

This is the venture capital agency founded by Bill Gates in 2015, the Breakthrough Energy Alliance Fund (Breakthrough Energy Coalition) led by Bill Gates (Bill Gates). It is known as the "Dream team" in the industry because of its extremely strong lineup of investors.

At the same time, Horizons Ventures has appeared on the ZeroAvia list more than once, which is Li Ka-shing's industry.

The second financing of ZeroAvia is led by Horizons Ventures Horizon Venture of Li Ka-shing, and Breakthrough Energy Coalition continues to follow.

Source: after that, ZeroAvia also attracted new strategic investors British Airways (British Airways) and United Airlines (United Airlines).

The blessing of the two richest men and two major aviation companies has made ZeroAvia a star start-up for hydrogen-powered aircraft. It is the support of this capital that gives Val Miftakhov, founder and CEO of ZeroAvia, more strength.

In addition to the latest funding, ZeroAvia has previously raised more than $115 million.

Miftahov said that the gradual commercialization will begin in 2024, with the initial goal of building 10-20-seat hydrogen-powered aircraft with a range of 800km-capable of meeting the range needs of short-haul regional aircraft. the long-term goal is to develop hydrogen power systems for 100-150-seat aircraft, which will become the "main force" in the aviation field in the future.

03. Hydrogen-powered planes accelerate the flight, and Toyota and Mitsubishi are also adding to the major emitters that cause global warming. The aviation industry is definitely one of them.

Aviation and shipping, as the main users of fossil fuels, the aviation industry has become the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for more than 2% of global emissions.

Source: ZeroAvia at its current growth rate, global airlines will account for 1/4 of global carbon emissions by 2050.

In this industry, which is the most difficult to decarbonize, electrification technology is also far from being able to propel airplanes or move large sea ships, so hydrogen, a completely clean fuel, is starting to work.

Industry experts have also reached a consensus that hydrogen energy will be the best solution to ensure that zero-emission flight can become a reality.

As Andy Charlis, head of Barclays Sustainable Capital, a ZeroAvia investor, says, replacing fossil fuels with green hydrogen has been identified as a key decarbonization path for industries that are difficult to reduce emissions, such as the aviation industry.

Today, various consortia are also beginning to increase their size.

Universal Hydrogen (Global hydrogen Energy), like the start-up hydrogen aircraft company, is also doing well. If Bill Gates and Li Ka-shing stand behind ZeroAvia, Airbus, Toyota, Mitsubishi and domestic Tencent stand behind Universal Hydrogen.

At present, Universal Hydrogen has signed letters of intent with airlines such as Iceland Airlines, Air Nostrum and Ravn Alaska and ASL Aviation aircraft Leasing Company.

Universal Hydrogen's model is similar to that of ZeroAvia, mainly to develop hydrogen storage solutions and conversion kits for commercial aircraft.

Source: in addition to ZeroAvia, there is also H2FLY, which recently completed the world's first manned flight of an electric aircraft using liquid hydrogen.

H2FLY is a company headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, founded in 2015 by five engineers from the German Aerospace Center in Stuttgart and the University of Ulm.

Unlike the above two, H2FLY mainly focuses on liquid hydrogen as fuel and has received financial support from a number of German ministries and the Paradise Project (Project HEAVEN).

Whether driven by hydrogen, electricity or liquid hydrogen, there is no doubt that hydrogen planes are ready to pile up in the sky.

Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is very attractive to fossil fuel-dependent automobiles and aerospace industries, and hydrogen fuel cells use compressed hydrogen as fuel and emit only water vapor.

Admittedly, from the perspective of the automobile industry, the progress of hydrogen-powered vehicles has been limited by technology and cost, for example, the production, storage and transportation costs of hydrogen are very high, but hydrogen is expected to have more application space in the aviation field.

Although it will take some time, the hydrogen plane is really flying now.

This article is from the official account of Wechat: Chaodian Lab (ID:SuperEV-Lab), author: Wang Lei

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