Originally published by Vertical Magazine, authored by Pat Host
Alaka’i Technologies is betting a new multicopter using challenging liquid hydrogen for fuel will carve out a niche and bring it financial success in an eVTOL aircraft marketplace.
Liquid hydrogen has long existed as a fuel for forklifts and motor vehicles, but has yet to be successfully implemented in aviation. It is less efficient as a fuel source than traditional energy-dense jet fuel and is less convenient to handle, Dan Patt, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., told Vertical.
Liquid hydrogen has little existing infrastructure to transport to the aircraft and store on the ground. Liquid hydrogen is also very expensive to use because it requires complex storage systems to account for cold cryogenic temperatures and requires redundancy in aircraft systems for safety.
“Is it worth this complexity and all this investment in the infrastructure to get no carbon emissions?” Patt said.
View the original article on verticalmag.com.