There is some ground work to be done before we can fly on hydrogen

Our ultimate goal is to create aircraft powered by Green Hydrogen, leaving nothing behind than water vapor. They will be operating 100% sustainable with zero carbon footprint caused by their operation. Neither direct nor indirect.

We are expecting to reach this goal within 5 years. But to reach this goal, there is some groundwork to do. And there is no time to loose.

When it comes to the airplane’s powerplant, we do not want to take any risk.

Before we even think about flying, we want to experiment and gain experience with the new hydrogen storage and release technology we want to introduce. Here is one Milestone project that we are beginning to work on.?A golf cart powered by sustainably generated hydrogen.

We will take one of these popular golf carts and replace its batteries with a fuel cell. The fuel cell is much smaller and lighter than the current batteries. We are planning on one that is 32″ long, 11″ wide, and less than 5″ high. It will weigh around 16 lbs. With the controller the system weight will be less than 27 lbs. The system size will be around 17″ x 11″ x 7″. There will be plenty of room to install 2 or more hydrogen cassettes in the cart. We expect that the Hydrogen Golf Cart will be able to operate for four hours on one charge.

When the cartridges are discharged it will take only a couple minutes to swap them against fresh, recharged ones. If you are going long distance, you could take charged cartridges with you and swap them out when needed. These cartridges do not pose any risk. They cannot ignite. They are not combustible. They are temperature stable over a very large range. No problem if left in the sunshine – even in the desert. And, of course, there is absolutely no danger of a Hindenburg-style explosion. Much safer than automobile gas!

This is what a fuel cell of 3 KW output looks like. 3 KW equals 4 HP. Weight and dimensions for the complete system, including the controller are: 26 lbs., 16″ x 11″ x 7″. This is much less space and weight than the batteries are currently occupying in the golf cart. There is plenty room left for the hydrogen cassettes.

Plasma Kinetic’s Hydrogen Cassettes (shown above), weigh 18 pounds each. They hold 252 grams of hydrogen, good enough for 5.5 KWh. That translates to more than 7 HP?for an hour per cassette. We need to consider, though, that the fuel cell does not operate at 100% efficiency. Right now, a good efficiency seems to be around 60%. However, there have been news lately about new technology raising the efficiency to 90%. Anyway, the hydrogen golf cart should have an operating range of 4 hours using two hydrogen cassettes, even if there will not be any progress in fuel cell technology.

Now we have a golf cart that can operate 100% free of any direct emissions.

But what about the indirect emissions? That depends completely on how the hydrogen was created. If you have access to Green Hydrogen – you are there. You are operating an emission free golf cart. However, most hydrogen available is not Green. Most of the hydrogen produced today is either Grey Hydrogen or Blue Hydrogen. Here is more about the color code:?https://myskyeco.com/about-the-different-colors-of-hydrogen/

Chances are, you will not find a source for Green Hydrogen. Not now, in just a few years this might look very different. But what to do in the meantime? We have a solution for that: Produce your own hydrogen!

Where do you keep your golf cart? In a shed with solar roof.

(Photo above: With a shed like this you will be able to create enough hydrogen to run your golf cart.) What you see on the roof of this shed are Photo Voltaic Panels. They create electric energy from sunlight. Then you need an electrolytic hydrogen generator like this one.

(Photo above: Electrolytic Hydrogen Generator) Now you have everything in place to produce your own hydrogen. And it will be 100% Green Hydrogen. You can use rain water to create your hydrogen. It cannot get any more sustainable like that.

We will use the hydrogen powered golf cart as our first testbed to familiarize ourselves with the new storage options developed by Plasma Kinetics.

There is a lot to learn. Maybe not at first glance. But if you look closer there are some new challenges which we will need to have 100% under control before moving forward.

As an example: Hydrogen is 100% safe as long as it is stored in the cassettes or cannisters. Then a laser releases the hydrogen from the metallic film. Now we have hydrogen gas. It is not under pressure. But if a leak would occur on the way to where it is used in a fuel cell (or a combustion engine), the hydrogen could accumulate in a cavity and pose a fire or explosion hazard.

We are planning to design all hydrogen lines along the outside of the vehicle. All cavities, where hydrogen possibly could accumulate, need to be very well vented and they need to allow the hydrogen to dissipate upwards. Because of its low weight (much lower than air), hydrogen has the tendency to escape upwards. These are the kind of things we want to examine precisely with the hydrogen powered golf cart. Once we have the experience, we will turn to?MySkyECO?MS-1rH, the hydrogen powered aircraft.

And we will design aircraft hangars to produce green hydrogen and store it safely.