Originally Posted by
Deltasierra010
Hydrogen is not “energy dense” liquid hydrogen needs 5 times the volume to match jet fuel, moreover it needs to be compressed and refrigerated, less of a problem at 30,000 ft but critical on the ground, we are highly unlikely to see airliners fueled by hydrogen.
Yea, I laughed when I saw that little 'energy dense' tidbit in the article (apparently there is a reason we don't let reporters design aircraft). Yes it's light, but you need many times more volume. To be even remotely viable, the H2 tanks need to be spherical or cylindrical - so you're not going to be carrying it the wing. Worse, even though it's light relative to Jet A, you're still going to need a lot of it to go very far, so you need to store it near the aircraft CG to maintain acceptable trim as it burns off. So what you're going to end up with is a massive H2 tank in the middle of the fuselage - which needs to have fail-safe segregation from passengers and crew. So what you're apt to end up with is passenger/cargo space in the front and rear, with a massive fuel tank in between. At best, a complete re-think of aircraft design and layout.
Biofuel (probably based on algae) is a far more viable long-term solution than H2 - with the added advantage that it would work with today's aircraft...