EUROCAE and SAE International Publish First Global Guidelines for Airport Hydrogen Fueling Stations

EUROCAE and SAE International jointly announce the publication of “Hydrogen Fueling Stations for Airports, in Both Gaseous and Liquid Form”. These documents serve as the first worldwide hydrogen station guidelines for the aerospace industry.

EUROCAE ER-034, developed in collaboration with SAE's AIR8466, provides the first step in defining performance targets and safety limits to enable hydrogen as an accessible fuel for various commercial aircrafts. Considering the wide range of aircraft with hydrogen storage sizes, SAE AIR8466 and EUROCAE ER-034 also define fueling categories for hydrogen eVTOLs, Regional, Narrow body and Widebody (including Lighter than Air).

“SAE AIR8466 sets the stage for hydrogen fueling at airports by closing a major aerospace industry gap”, said Jesse Schneider (ZEV Station), chair of the SAE AE-5CH Hydrogen Airport Taskgroup.

“This joint guideline marks a significant step forward for the aviation industry’s transition to hydrogen,” said Anna von Groote, Director General of EUROCAE. “Together with SAE International, we have created a foundational framework that addresses safety, performance, and the practical needs of airports worldwide to integrate hydrogen as a fuel option. This collaboration exemplifies how industry-wide efforts can lead to impactful changes, supporting the industry's commitment to cleaner aviation—and it is just the first of many steps we will take together to make hydrogen accessible across the sector.”

“There are plenty of airport standards for fueling jet A-1 fuel, but there haven’t been any standardization efforts yet for hydrogen stations,” Schneider continued. “It was quite a coordination between international aircraft OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, regulators and hydrogen companies to find consensus on an airport hydrogen fueling station guideline, but we did it. This is a guidebook for hydrogen safety and fueling station definitions. The SAE AIR8466/ EUROCAE ER-034 gives the industry a starting point for fueling stations for hydrogen aircraft in gaseous and liquid form.”

Key highlights of this guideline document include:

• Range of estimated hydrogen storage onboard based per aircraft type and use case.
• Categorization of hydrogen fueling speeds (flow rates in kg/minute), based on airline turnaround time, which gives a first definition of coupling size categories.
• Fueling Process Parameter definitions for gaseous hydrogen and liquid hydrogen fueling of aircraft at airports and mobile and stationary station use cases.
• High-level hydrogen properties including safety definitions.

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