Club of Pioneers is searching for sustainable mobility ideas deserving awareness and support. The first project we've found is an airplane which is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell: The Hydrogenius! We talked with Steffen Geinitz, research associate of the Hydrogenius Team at the University of Stuttgart about the vision of zero emission flying.How efficient is your hydrogen concept in comparison with conventional power systems? What can you tell us about the range and the power “Hydrogenius”? Steffen Geinitz: Hydrogenius will be equipped with an electric motor which delivers a maximum shaft power of about 60 kW. Using an electrical and fuel cell based power train we achieve an improvement of about 50 % compared to existing aircrafts of the same power level. Besides that we obtain additional efficiency by the configuration (integration of the propeller in the vertical tail) of the aircraft of about 20 %. In the figure we compared two-seated conventional powered aircrafts of the same power level. The Scheibe SF 25C is a widely used older motor glider. The HK 36 Super Dimona TT80 is a newer one and the WT 9 Dynamic is a recent ultra light aircraft. All information is based on manufacturer’s data.


What is the special challenge in developing “Hydrogenius”?The special challenge is to design an aircraft which is in performance and operation comparable to existing ones. This means that Hydrogenius should not merely be a prototype but rather a series-production aircraft. So we have to deal with the challenges of a fuel cell propulsion system fed by hydrogen such as high amount of weight and volume and the low amount of energy stored on board. Therefore we are designing the whole aircraft for low energy consumption and high performance at the best point of efficiency of the propulsion system. This only works by developing a new aircraft and not by integrating a fuel cell system in an existing one.
A graphic illustraion of Hydrogenius
The usage of hydrogen in aviation triggers bad memories, we all know about the Hindenburg disaster. This happened a long time ago but is the utilization of hydrogen really safer today?The Hindenburg disaster is one of the unfounded prejudices concerning hydrogen. The main cause of the disaster was the non-conducting and highly flammable coating of the Hindenburg. The hydrogen contributed to the fire but was not the cause. Hydrogen has been used in research and industry for more than hundred years without greater complications than other gases. In contrast to many other gases it is not poisonous and volatilizes very fast. That is also much better than gasoline especially in the aviation, where several accidents happened by toxication of the occupants by carbon monoxide which got into the cabin through a damaged heating system.
So I think there are more prejudices than real concerns, which argue against the use of hydrogen as a fuel.What do you think about the potential of hydrogen as an energy source for airplanes?

If the fuel cell prices decrease and hydrogen infrastructure will be disposable several new construed propeller driven aircraft will be operated by hydrogen in the future. The very low energy consumption and the absence of mechanically high loaded parts in the power train leads to low direct operating costs of the aircraft. Furthermore the low noise level makes fuel cell propulsion very attractive for two to ten seated aircraft to General and Business Aviation.
The cage in the airframe
We still have the problem of the underdeveloped hydrogen infrastructure. How could we solve this problem?This is mainly a problem of demand and supply. 100 years ago there haven’t been many petrol stations for cars either. If someone can earn money with the supply of hydrogen on an airfield he will do that. And with very few hydrogen stations on airfields and airports a big area is made accessible for fuel cell powered aircraft. That is much easier than a complete new infrastructure for cars.When will “Hydrogenius” take off? Do interested persons have the chance to get on board of “Hydrogenius”?The maiden flight is planned for mid/end of 2010. After doing some test flights and eliminating the teething troubles interested persons and sponsors of the project are invited to go for a flight with Hydrogenius in 2011.When do you think does the first hydrogen airplane transport passengers?As said by one of our technical partners, “To answer this question we need a very good crystal ball to look into the future and unfortunately we don’t even have a bad one.”Images: Hydrogenius